Abstract
The present article introduces an automated procedure to construct geometrical Representative Volume Elements (RVE) of open-foam cellular materials from computerized tomography (CT) images, with the final aim of generating meshable geometries usable in the Finite Element Method (FEM) used in order to analyse their mechanical behaviour. The methodology consists in growing and fitting a set of ellipsoids to each of the foam cells. These ellipsoids are seeded by local maxima of the distance to the struts obtained from computer tomography images. This methodology is thus fully voxel-based and does not depend on any assumption about statistical distributions of the foam cells. Therefore, it is able to reproduce an accurate geometrical model of the foam's microstructure and its possible irregularities. Moreover, this procedure allows the processing of large 3D data sets that do not fit the random access memory (RAM) by slicing it into smaller independent chunks. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is illustrated by comparing it to FEM simulations for which meshes are obtained from a feature reconstruction approach. Both FEM simulations are then compared with experimental results of uniaxial compressions of an open foam.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
