Investigation on the mechanical behaviors of porous Al–Mg honeycombs with grain boundary affect zone segregated structure

Utilizing molecular dynamics simulation (MD), the influence of Voronoi seed number and solute concentration (SC) as well as strain rate on the mechanical behaviors of porous Al–Mg honeycombs are investigated in this paper. Our porous Al–Mg alloy honeycomb model is constructed by cutting off the intra-granular atoms and retaining the grain boundary affect zone (GBAZ). The alloying atoms (Mg) are segregated in the GBAZ domain. Based on the dislocation activity analysis, the corresponding deformation mechanisms are explored minutely. It is found that the strength of irregular Voronoi honeycomb samples can be effectively enhanced with the increasing Voronoi seed numbers. Meanwhile, as a consequence of porous structures, the achieved stress–strain responses under different strain rates still exhibit a rising trend even at the plastic deformation stage. These findings supply a new notion of lightweight design strategy for industrial application limits of low strength.