Mechanical Behavior of Non Sintered and Sintered Steel Wool

Entangled materials are similar to cellular materials, with regard to their low density and discrete architecture. In this work steel wool (sintered in a furnace for various time at two temperatures) and non sintered steel wool are investigated. Experimental mechanical compression tests were performed on both materials. Compression stress and Young’s modulus are extracted and compared with the time and temperature of sintering, and initial density. The results are analyzed using a classical Toll’s model. A special attention is paid to the value of the exponent which relates stress and Young’s modulus to density. This exponent ranges from 3 to 5 for non sintered wool, and is close to 3 for the stress law and 4 for the Young’s modulus law for sintered wool.