PS foams at high pressure drop rates

Abstract

In this paper, we report data on PS foamed at 100 °C after CO2 saturation at 10 MPa in a new physical foaming batch that achieves pressure drop rates up to 120 MPa/s. Results show how average cell size of the foam nicely fit a linear behavior with the pressure drop rate in a double logarithmic plot. Furthermore, foam density initially decreases with the pressure drop rate, attaining a constant value at pressure drop rates higher than 40 MPa/s. Interestingly, furthermore, we observed that the shape of the pressure release curve has a large effect on the final foam morphology, as observed in tests in which the maximum pressure release rate was kept constant but the shape of the curve changed. These results allow for a fine tuning of the foam density and morphology for specific applications.