Tensile properties of anisotropic foamed polyethylene films with ellipsoidal closed cells

Abstract

In this work, the tensile properties of high density polymer foam films with ellipsoidal closed cells are studied to determine the effect of the cell structure and orientation on the elastic modulus. As expected, not only the relative foam density (ρr) has a direct effect on the elastic modulus, but also the cell aspect ratio (AR) and cell orientation (θ). Based on the results available from our previous works, a simple model based on the Gibson and Ashby equation is proposed to predict the relative elastic modulus of foamed films. Then, a validation of the model is done using experimental data from the literature. For the range of parameters included (0.45 < ρr < 1.0, 0 < θ < 90ο, 1 < AR < 6), an average absolute deviation of 6% is obtained for all the samples tested.