Additive manufacturing and characterization of brittle foams

Abstract

This work focuses on the synthesis of brittle foams with controlled morphological characteristics, measurements of their crushing strength and its connection to the cellular microstructure. Tessellation-based topologies are used to generate realistic microstructures of open-cell foams that are subsequently 3D-printed by stereolithography. The brittle material behavior and fracture strength of the base photopolymer are measured using tensile tests on small dog-bone specimens with the dimensions of foam ligaments. Synthesized foams are scanned by microcomputed tomography and manufacturing-induced variations are quantified through image analysis. Characterization shows that there is a small amount of volume shrinkage of the material caused by the additive manufacturing process, but all other microstructural features are accurately reproduced. We then perform a series of experiments to measure the compressive response and strength of the 3D-printed foams and connect it to load-transferring conditions, the strength of the base solid material and the foam relative density.