The plastic collapse strength, energy absorption and elastic modulus of a closed cell aluminum foam are studied in relation to cell structures. The density, node size and the cell wall thickness of the aluminum foams decrease with increasing cell size. The failure of the foam cells under compressive load progresses successively from the top or/and bottom to the mid-layer of the compression specimens, and no initial rupture of the foam cells is observed in the mid-height of the foam samples. When foam density increases from 0.11 to 0.22 g/cm(3) the plastic collapse strength rises from 0.20 to 1.29 MPa, while the elastic modulus of the closed cell aluminum foam increases from 0.70 to 1.17 GPa. In contrast, the energy absorption of the foams decreases rapidly with increasing cell size. When cell size increases from 4.7 to 10.1 mm, the energy absorption drops from over unity to 0.3 J/cm(3). The normalized Yong's modulus of the closed cell aluminum foam is E*/E-s = 0.208 (rho*/rho(s)), while the normalized strength of the foams, sigma*/sigma(s) is expressed by sigma*/sigma(s) = c.rho*/rho(s) where c is a density-dependent parameter. Furthermore, the plastic collapse strength and energy absorption ability of the closed cell aluminum foams are significantly improved by reducing cell size of the aluminum foams having the same density. (c) 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.