Abstract
Polymeric foams are used extensively as the core of sandwich structures in automotive and aerospace industries. Normally, several experiments are necessary to obtain the required properties to model the response of crushable foams using finite element analysis (FEA). Hence, this research aims to develop a simple and reliable calibration process for extracting the physical parameters which are required by the material model available in the commercial FE package Abaqus. To do this, a set of experimental tests, including uniaxial compression, uniaxial tension and shear punch tests, is proposed. All the experimental tests were also simulated, and generally, good correlations between experiments and numerical models were obtained. The validity of the overall approach was finally demonstrated using an indentation test in which the foam was subjected to a more complex mixed mode loading. During these indentation tests, digital image correlation was used to observe full-field strain distribution in the foam under the indenter. Good agreement between the experimental results and the numerical predictions was found for load–displacement response, failure mode and strain distribution.
Highlights
To improve the efficiency of vehicles, reducing the weight of structures has become a major target in automotive and aerospace industries
To model the response of crushable foams, several mechanical properties need to be extracted from experimental tests for calibrating the material models which are available in commercial Finite Element (FE) packages
The data from the first three tests were used with Eqs. (1)–(4) following the calibration process proposed in ‘‘Calibration methodology’’ section, and the predicted hydrostatic strengths were compared to the values which were measured by Deshpande and Fleck [6]
Summary
To improve the efficiency of vehicles, reducing the weight of structures has become a major target in automotive and aerospace industries. Transportation industries are interested in the use of polymeric foams as the core of crushable devices, due to the wide variety of synthetic polymers (available in various densities) and their capability for absorbing large amounts of energy, especially when loaded in compression. Due to their complex microstructure, the mechanical response of foams depends on several structural factors including density, cell size, wall thickness and cell geometry [1,2,3], as well as loading conditions. To model the response of crushable foams, several mechanical properties need to be extracted from experimental tests for calibrating the material models which are available in commercial Finite Element (FE) packages
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