Effect of Wall Thickness of Hollow Sphere on the Stress Distribution of Random Hollow Sphere Syntactic Foam

Abstract

This paper addresses elastic analysis based on 3D finite element model for hollow sphere structures. In finite element models, which were analyzed under pressure of 1MPa, volume fraction of hollow spheres is kept at 30%, and hollow spheres are randomly located in the matrix. Five types of hollow sphere are used to form the model. All the types of hollow spheres have 60μm particle sizes, but different wall thicknesses. A comparison in stress distribution between the hollow sphere and matrix is made, which shows that in composites containing thin-walled hollow particles the maximum stress is located in the inner surface of particle wall, whereas increasing the wall thickness of hollow spheres results in getting some part of matrix around hollow spheres involved in energy absorption. Moreover, the location of the maximum stress in matrix related closely to the spatial arrangement of the particles. The study provides an insight into the micro structural performance of syntactic foam under load.