Foaming Mechanism Research Articles

Investigation of Tensile Properties and In Situ Analysis of Fracture Behavior in High-Porosity Open-Cell Nickel Foam

Nickel foam offers excellent conductivity, a high surface area, and lightweight structure, making it ideal for applications, like battery electrodes, catalysts, and filtration systems. Its durability and corrosion resistance further enhance its performance in various industries. However, few studies focus on the tensile anisotropy of nickel foam and its tensile fracture process. In this study, the anisotropic tensile behavior of nickel foam with varying relative densities has been investigated, along with its tensile fracture behavior using in situ techniques. The tensile properties of nickel foams show strong anisotropy due to the flattening process in the production process. The results show that the tensile properties, including the yield strength, tensile strength, and elastic modulus, increase with the increasing relative density, while the elongation percentage has no relationship with the relative density. The experiment data on tensile strength are in agreement with Gibson’s formula and Liu’s formula. In situ tensile tests are conducted to explore the microscopic fracture mechanism of nickel foam. The results show that the struts of nickel foam are tensile fractures or shear fractures near the joints, and the fracture process of struts is clearly recorded and analyzed. This study is significant as it provides critical insights into the anisotropic tensile behavior of nickel foam and fracture mechanism, enabling the optimization of production processes and broadening its potential applications.

Utilization of thermoplastic resin as foamed asphalt modifier in cold recycled mixtures

The utilization of foamed virgin asphalt in cold recycled mixtures results in insufficient bonding strength between aggregates, leading to rapid deterioration to the recycled asphalt pavement. This ultimately causes inefficient clean production and increased carbon emissions. The foaming performance of thermoplastic resin modified asphalt (TRA) under different foaming conditions was analyzed. Micro-scale chemical and physical tests were utilized to discover the foaming mechanism of TRA. The road performance of cold recycled mixtures with foamed TRA was evaluated through splitting, rutting and fatigue tests. The results showed that the increase in the TRA polar functional group index led to an increase in its surface tension, thus limiting its expansion capacity. However, the increase in the specific heat capacity of TRA indicated that it preserves a low viscosity level essential for its foaming efficacy post-ejection from the foaming machine, thereby enhancing its half-life. Furthermore, the dynamic viscosity of the TRA with an 8% thermoplastic resin dosage exceeded 40000 Pa s at 60 °C, meeting the specification requirements for high viscosity asphalt, while exhibiting a notably lower viscosity of only 120 mPa s at the foaming temperature of 170 °C. The observed low viscosity of the asphalt is anticipated to favorably enhance the formation of a stable foam structure. The mechanical properties and overall road performance of the cold recycled mixture with foamed TRA were significantly enhanced, especially in terms of moisture damage resistance and low-temperature crack resistance. The purpose of this paper is to serve as a valuable reference for investigating the mechanism of modified asphalt foaming and to enhance the efficiency of cold recycled pavement regeneration processes.

Analysis of foaming mechanism and adhesion of foam rubberised asphalt from the perspective of molecular scale

ABSTRACT Rubberised asphalt faces challenges such as viscosity and construction energy consumption. These problems can be ameliorated by the use of foaming technology. However, existing studies lack a microscopic-level understanding of the foaming mechanism and interfacial properties of foam rubberised asphalt. Therefore, this study used molecular dynamics simulation methods to establish foam rubberised asphalt models and interface models. The models were analysed from the aspects of model density, energy change, molecular agglomeration behaviour and adhesion work. Results revealed that increased temperature and water consumption caused difficulties in the volumetric compression of the model. The diffusion and aggregation behaviour of water molecules altered the distribution of other molecules in the model, effectively reducing the viscosity of the rubberised asphalt without affecting the chemical structure. In the interfacial model, water molecules contribute to the migration of asphalt molecules to the mineral surface, which exists in two forms: aggregating within asphalt and diffusing to the interface. The interface water molecules enhance the electrostatic interaction between asphalt and minerals. However, due to the random nature of water molecule diffusion, it is difficult to form a regular layer of water molecules at the interface, which leads to failure of the adhesion work.

Research on Mechanism of Controlling Water and Stabilizing Production in Heavy Oil Reservoirs with Edge-bottom Water

The development of edge-bottom water heavy oil reservoirs typically involves short water-free production period and a rapid increase in water cut, leading to generally low oil recovery factors. Combining the advantages of foam and viscosity reducers for composite development can effectively address the challenges in edge-bottom water reservoirs; however, the mechanism of action remains unclear. In this study, the concentrations of foaming agent and viscosity reducer were initially determined using a foam evaluator and an Anton Paar rheometer. Subsequently, a 2D large flat plate model was employed to conduct a composite group production experiment after water flooding, and then the change in oil saturation during flooding was analyzed by measuring electrical resistance. Finally, the dynamic curves of flooding were compared to analyze the mechanism of water control and oil stabilization (WCOS). The results indicate that the 2D large flat plate model and the method of inverting saturation field maps can effectively simulate the oil-water flow behavior during the composite flooding process after water flooding. The synergistic mechanism of N2 foam controlling bottom water coning and CO2 enhanced viscosity reducer to reduce viscosity in deep areas was revealed, increasing the overall recovery factor by 10.3% compared to water flooding. The mechanism of the combined oil recovery is clarified, which providing a reference for formulating WCOS plans following water flooding.

Insights into the Foaming Mechanism of Micro-Nanocellular PBAT Foams Regulating by Crystallization Behaviors

Insights into the Foaming Mechanism of Micro-Nanocellular PBAT Foams Regulating by Crystallization Behaviors

Foaming mechanisms in ball milling prepared borosilicate glass powder

Thanks to their exceptional thermal and electrical properties, borosilicate glasses are widely used in chip packaging and electronic pastes. Nonetheless, borosilicate glass powders suffer from the phenomenon of foaming and expansion during sintering process, which greatly affects the sintering densities of the powders and poses limitations to their applications. Herein, we explored the foaming mechanism of borosilicate glasses by ball milling. The foaming of borosilicate glass is due to the adsorption of CO2 from the atmosphere by the glass powder during ball milling. The CO2 forms carbonates on the surface of the glass powder and is released during the sintering process, leading to foaming. Additionally, as the specific surface area of the glass powder increases, its corrosion resistance decreases while its foaming strength increases. The foaming strength of the four glass powders, listed in ascending order, is: SrO-B2O3-SiO2, ZnO-B2O3-SiO2, BaO-B2O3-SiO2 and CaO-B2O3-SiO2. Meanwhile, it was found that the foaming strength could be weakened better by ball milling organic modification method. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the glass foaming phenomenon. Furthermore, they offer practical strategies to reduce the foaming and optimize the performance of borosilicate glass-based materials in applications of chip packaging and electronic pastes.

A new seismic metamaterial design with ultra-wide low-frequency wave suppression band utilizing negative Poisson's ratio material

In this paper, we present a new seismic metamaterial (SM) for the suppression of Lamb waves and surface waves utilizing the negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) foam. The periodic cell of the metamaterial is composed of a square cylinder made of steel in the center and NPR foam connecters at the corners. Utilizing the unique resonance properties of the NPR material, an ultra-low-frequency broadband wave suppression is achieved. First, the characteristics of bandgaps (BGs) of the proposed structure with different materials were analyzed using the finite element (FE) method. It shows that the application of the NPR foam can significantly broaden the BGs compared with the case using traditional rubber. The vibration modes were analyzed to investigate the mechanism of BG generation, and the results show that the broad BG is achieved via the unique local resonance mechanism of the NPR foam. Subsequently, the frequency-domain analysis was carried out to verify the shielding effect of the designed SM on Lamb waves, using a periodic structure consisting of 10 × 6 unit cells. It shows that the designed SM can effectively attenuate Lamb waves in the range of 3–44 Hz with attenuation up to −590 dB at 32 Hz. A parametric analysis shows that the NPR foam with small thickness, high modulus, low mass density, and low Poisson's ratio can broaden the first complete BG. In addition, the acoustic cone method was combined with the frequency-domain analysis to calculate the BGs of the proposed structure against the surface wave, using a periodic structure consisting of 20 unit cells. It shows that the surface wave can be significantly attenuated within the BG. Finally, real seismic excitations were applied for time-domain analyses, and the simulation results show that the proposed structure can effectively shield the low-frequency seismic surface waves in the range of 0.1–20 Hz. The design scheme proposed in this paper is simple in structure and easy to implement, and is believed to possess bright application potentials in seismic protection.

Fabrication of flat and sizeable nanocellular polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) foam with tunable thermal conductivity

AbstractPolymeric nanocell foam is a promising material that faces manufacturing challenges. Producing sizable and thick foams for properties testing has been challenging. This study aims to scale up and understand the foaming mechanism of nanocellular foams by controlling the saturation temperature, pressure, and molecular weight distribution of the matrix to fine‐tune the glass transition temperature of the polymer/gas mixture. The hot‐press foamed samples possess a 100 × 70 × 6 ~ 8 mm3 dimension and a cell size of less than 200 nm. Bimodal structures can also be created by controlling the critical processing parameters. Introducing 37% microcells into unimodal nanocellular foam reduced the relative density from 0.29 to 0.19. The thermal conductivity of the foams was tuned by controlling the cell size distribution. Unimodal nanofoams have the lowest thermal conductivity for foams of the same density due to the Knudsen effect and tortuosity. The measured thermal conductivity is in agreement with theoretical models.Highlights PMMA nanofoam with a dimension of 100 × 70 × 6–8 mm3 and cell size below 200 nm. The morphology of nanofoams was tuned to be unimodal and bimodal. The foam density of the bimodal nanofoams was lowered below 0.238 g/cm3. The thermal conductivity of foams was tuned by controlling the cell structure.

A Self-foaming Strategy to Construct Small Mo2C Nanoparticles Decorated 3D Carbon Foams as Superior Electromagnetic Wave Absorbing Materials with Strong Corrosion Resistance.

3D macroporous carbon-based foams are always considered as promising candidates for high-performance electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbing materials due to the collaborative EM contribution and salutary structure effect. However, the uneven distribution of heterogeneous EM components and the cumbersome preparation process have become key issues to hinder their performance improvement and practical popularity. Herein, the fabrication of 3D carbon foam decorated with small and highly dispersed Mo2C nanoparticles is realized by an innovative self-foaming strategy. The foaming mechanism can be attributed to the decomposition of nitrate during the softening process of organic polymers. The good dispersion of Mo2C nanoparticles boosts interfacial polarization significantly. After regulating the content of Mo2C nanoparticles, the optimal Mo2C/CF-x exhibits good EM absorption performance, whose minimum reflection loss intensity value can reach up to -72.2dB, and effective absorption bandwidth covers 6.7GHz with a thickness of 2.30mm. Very importantly, the resultant Mo2C/CF-x exhibits hydrophobicity and strong acidic anticorrosion, and a long-time treatment in HCl solution (6.0molL-1) produces negligible impacts on their EM functions. It is believed that this extraordinary feature may render Mo2C/C foams as qualified and durable EM wave absorbing materials (EWAMs) under rigorous conditions.

Exploring thermal and in-situ mechanical properties of flexible 2D tungsten disulfide foam-polymer composite for thermal management

In the realm of thermal management applications, there is a growing need for flexible materials that can efficiently dissipate heat. Polymer composites incorporating two-dimensional (2D) materials offer promising solutions due to their superior thermal and mechanical properties. Tungsten disulfide (WS2) is an excellent filler candidate for polymer composites due to its superior thermal conductivity, mechanical strength, and electrical properties. Unlike graphene, WS2 has a tunable bandgap, exhibits higher thermal resistance in inert atmospheres, is an effective lubricant over a wide temperature range of −190°C to over 800°C, and offers superior gamma radiation shielding. However, high-density 2D material polymer composite fabrication faces challenges due to the agglomeration tendency and sedimentation of heavy nanomaterials within the polymer matrix. This poor dispersion stability negatively impacts the performance and reliability of the composite. We developed a flexible WS2 foam-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite via freeze drying and vacuum-assisted infiltration, which not only overcomes fabrication challenges but also enables unique filler reinforcement foam designs. The thermal conductivity of WS2-PDMS foam was 1.57 times higher than that of neat PDMS. These thermal properties were modeled using the Lewis-Nielsen model. In-situ tensile tests were conducted to understand the mechanical reinforcing behavior and failure mechanisms of WS2 foam, which were further studied using the Gibson and Ashby model. The addition of WS2 into PDMS resulted in an elastic modulus 1.56 times higher than that of neat PDMS. The composite's mechanical properties were analyzed using the Halpin-Tsai model. These findings highlight the potential of WS2-PDMS composites for flexible thermal management applications.

Reversible thermochromic K2O·nSiO2-based anti-fire glass with bidirectional responsion and memory function

We describe a low-cost method for the synthesis of reversible thermochromic K2O·nSiO2-based anti-fire materials with bidirectional responsion and memory function, which was significant for energy-saving and fire-resistant applications. Here, the reversible thermochromic (RTC) and inverted reversible thermochromic (IRTC) K2O·nSiO2-based anti-fire glass were prepared via an in-situ reaction using a high solid content and low viscosity SiO2 sol (HSLV SiO2 sol, 55 wt%). The morphological, thermochromic, thermal insulation, and memory performances were systematically characterized. The pincer-like structure, rod-like structure and the layered microporous morphology were clearly shown in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs. The color change, foaming, and memory mechanisms were further investigated in detail. The significant differences appeared in the visible region of RTC and IRTC K2O·nSiO2-based anti-fire glass during heating and cooling process. FTIR spectra were used to characterize the difference among RTC, IRTC and control samples. The results indicated that a small amount of NH4+ caused the K2O·nSiO2-based anti-fire glass to exhibit IRTC characteristics, and the continuous addition of polyhydric alcohols was the key to obtain RTC performance. The IRTC K2O·nSiO2-based anti-fire glass was suitable for the conservatories or greenhouses, and the RTC K2O·nSiO2-based anti-fire glass reduced the direct sunlight exposure to control the indoor temperature. Combined with morphological and Tg analysis, the thermal insulation performance was enhanced by a microporous insulating layer with a sponge-like structure. We also used the bidirectional reversible thermochromic performance to prepare a novel anti-fire glass component for construction with anti-counterfeiting function. This work provided a new approach for the application of multifunctional smart windows.

Combustion Mechanism of Polyurethane Foam in Refrigerated and Frozen Warehouses Based on Fire-Case Analysis

Combustion Mechanism of Polyurethane Foam in Refrigerated and Frozen Warehouses Based on Fire-Case Analysis

Crystallinity dependence of thermal and mechanical properties of glass-ceramic foams

Glass foams and glass-ceramic foams exhibit great potential in thermal insulation of buildings, consequently reducing the necessity for heating or cooling, and ultimately contributing to energy saving. In this study, we prepared glass-ceramic foams utilizing silicate glass as starting material and CaCO3 as foaming agent through a thermochemical process. Foams with varying degrees of relative crystallinity were produced by controlling temperature and duration of isothermal heat treatment. The foaming mechanism in the glass-ceramics was discussed by analyzing how the heat flow, mass, and volume evolve within the powder mixture during dynamic heating. The crystallization in glass did not show any clear trend on the compressive strength of glass foams. On the other hand, the thermal conductivity of the glass-ceramic foams increases with increasing relative crystallinity. The calculated solid thermal conductivity exhibited a minimum at low relative crystallinity (<20 %). These findings are crucial for designing high performance glass-ceramic foams for thermal insulation, potentially also for fabricating glass-ceramic foams using waste glasses.

Pressure propagation mechanism of open-cell aluminium foam within a pipe under hypervelocity impact

Low-density open-cell aluminium (Al) foam exhibits a different deformation mode under hypervelocity impacts compared to being subjected to medium-low speed and quasi-static compression. In this case, material flows between cells in the form of metal jets and propagates forward. This paper establishes the open-cell Al foam model based on Voronoi tessellation. Using numerical methods, one-dimensional hypervelocity constant velocity impact experiments of 1–6 km/s inside a closed pipe are conducted on Al foam with different internal structure parameters (average cell diameter: 2–3.5 mm; ligament width: 0.251–1 mm). Propagation mechanism of pressure waves in foams and the key factors affecting the propagation velocity are investigated. Three zones are divided according to the condition of jet distribution along the impact direction: unaffected zone, jet influence zone, and particle accumulation zone. The variation of the length of different zones with impact velocity is discussed: higher velocities result in longer jet influence zones but shorter particle accumulation zones. Meanwhile, length of zones is closely related to the width of Al foam ligament and cell pore diameter: the larger the diameter of cell pores and the smaller the width of ligaments, the longer the length of the jet influence zone. Time dependence is exhibited in the length of jet influence zone for the large cell pore diameter specimens(≥0.03 cm). Particle pressures are extracted using the one-dimensional averaging method, which propagates forward significantly lower than in dense materials. Dominant factors affecting the pressure wave propagation of open-cell Al foam, i.e., the internal unloading space, are obtained by combining two-dimensional hypervelocity impact simulation experiments with different boundary conditions. A strong correlation between metal jet distribution and particle pressure propagation is observed.

Sound absorption performance and mechanism of aluminum foam with double-layer structures of conventional and porous cell walls

Open-cell aluminum foam exhibits sound absorption valleys in the 2500-4000 Hz range, reducing its sound absorption performance in the 800–6300 Hz range. This paper prepared a novel aluminum foam with a double-layer structure using the infiltration casting method, and its pore structure, sound absorption performance, acoustic model, and sound absorption mechanism are investigated. The double-layer structure consists of a conventional pore (CP) layer with a single pore size of 250 μm or 600 μm and a porous cell wall (PCW) layer with double pore diameters of 250 μm and 600 μm. As the thickness ratio between the CP and PCW layers decreases, the acoustic absorption valley value of the double-layer structure increases when combined with a small-pore CP layer. In contrast, it decreases slightly when combined with a large-pores CP layer. The double-layer structure reaches a sound absorption valley value and average sound absorption coefficient of 0.912 and 0.902, respectively. The double-layer structure's sound absorption valley value is better than that of a homogeneous structure, improving sound absorption performance. A Lu modified model is established to characterize the sound absorption of the double-layer structure, which closely matches the experimental results. The modified model further analyzed the vital geometrical parameters affecting the absorption valleys. Acoustic impedance analysis shows the enhanced sound absorption valleys are due to: 1) Gradient acoustic impedance reduces sound reflections at the air-structure interfaces and increases secondary reflection at the interfaces in the structure; 2) The series–parallel configuration increased the resonance peak bandwidth, while the dual-sized resonance cavities regulated the resonance peak frequency.

Dynamic Simulation Research on Microprofile Control Mechanism of Foam in Fractured Media Based on Level Set Method.

Fractured reservoirs are an important source of oil and gas energy. After depletion of production, the production capacity of this reservoir decreases rapidly. Effective profile control is needed to improve the sweep efficiency and reservoir heterogeneity. Foam can solve such problems, but its profile control mechanism is not fully understood. Based on this, this paper uses the level set method to study the microscale control mechanism of foam in fractured media. The results show that artificial fractures and high-permeability microfractures are tighter than natural fractures, the Jamin effect of foam is stronger, and the secondary foaming ability is better. Therefore, the plugging ability of foam to natural fractures is far less than that of foam to artificial fractures and high-permeability microfractures. The larger the fracture opening, the larger the foam volume and the smaller the flow rate. As the opening ratio increases gradually, the generated foam flows more to the natural fractures with a large opening, and the effect of foam blocking large fractures becomes worse. The diversion rate curves of different opening ratios show that the foam has a good profile control effect when the opening ratios are 4:1 and 2:1, and even the diversion rate overturns, while the profile control diversion effect is poor when the opening ratio is 10:1, so it cannot play an effective role in profile control. The foam shows the profile control process of preferentially plugging the high-permeability area and allowing more subsequent fluids to enter the low-permeability area. The research reveals the profile control mechanism of foam on fractured reservoirs from the micro level, which is the supplement and verification of relevant macro research and provides a theoretical basis for the efficient development of fractured reservoirs.

Micro-layered film and foam alternating structures: A novel passive daytime radiative cooling material

This study investigates the confined foaming mechanisms and passive cooling performance of Micro-/Nano-Layered (MNL) film/foam alternating structures. These structures consist of solid poly(carbonate) (PC) film layers and foamed poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) layers. We examine the impact of confinement effects, layer thicknesses, and foaming conditions on cell morphology, cell nucleation, growth, and bulk expansion behavior. Samples ranging from 1 to 513 layers were foamed at 20 MPa and temperatures between 70 and 150°C. We identified three distinct cell structures—multiple, double, or single row(s) of cells—in MNL film/foam structures. We observed that cell size decreases and cell nucleation density increases with increasing layer count. The highest cell nucleation density (1.1×1013 cells/cm3) and smallest cell size (400 nm) were achieved in a 513-layer sample foamed at 70°C and 20 MPa. MNL samples primarily expand vertically, with the apparent expansion ratio ranging from 2.3 to 11 times as layers increase. Samples with double or single row(s) of cells exhibited tensile strengths (∼30 MPa) comparable to their solid counterparts and thermal conductivities (29.7 mW/m·K) comparable to air. Our samples exhibited high solar radiation reflection (93.5 %) and strong infrared emissivity (91.2 %) in the atmospheric transparent window. Mid-day passive cooling experiments showed an average temperature of 17.7°C lower under our sample than ambient conditions. Given these combined properties and the cost-effective nature of the manufacturing method, our samples are readily applicable for building applications, offering significant energy savings and contributing to the mitigation of global warming.

Effect of cell diameter variations on the mechanical behavior of aluminum foams: Experiments and modeling

Aluminum foams can be manufactured in a variety of cell sizes; however, existing models focus primarily on density and neglect the effect of cell size. Furthermore, aluminum foams with different cell diameters exhibit diverse mechanical properties. In this study, a quasi-static/dynamic compression test was performed to investigate the mechanical behavior, damage patterns, and damage mechanisms of aluminum foams with different cell diameters. The results demonstrate that the compressive properties of aluminum foams undergo significant changes. As the cell diameter increases, normalized initial damage stress and Young's modulus also increase, leading to enhanced energy absorption. However, this increase in cell diameter negatively affects the energy absorption efficiency, resulting in increased instabilities. A finite element analysis was conducted using the LS-DYNA finite element software to investigate the behavior of aluminum foils under all the experimentally tested loading regimes. The simulation results reveal that the deformation zone formed due to collapse diminishes with increasing cell diameter. More importantly, a new damage mechanism named central cell cleavage was reported, which increased the energy absorption capacity and amplified the instability during deformation. This study offers novel insights into the mechanical behaviors exhibited by aluminum foams, thereby facilitating their application in structural engineering.

Experimental and simulation study on the expansion mechanism of polyurethane grout

Understanding the expansion mechanism of polyurethane polymer grout can supply guidance for accurate grouting. However, most of the polymer grout expansion calculations were defined simplistically by the polymer density-expansion pressure empirical relationship expression, which failed to meet the time history of the expansion pressure during the polymer reaction process. The objective of this paper was to investigate the expansion mechanism of polyurethane foam in various constraint conditions during the whole polymer reaction process. A model describing the expansion mechanism of polyurethane foam was established based on the energy conservation principle, the chemical reaction kinetic equation solved by the Runge-Kutta method, and the ideal gas state equation. The model was proved applicable compared to the experiments under fixed volume and fixed confining pressure boundaries. In addition, the effects of grouting quantity, confining pressure, initial temperature, and physical foaming agent content on the grout expansion pressure, density, and components conversions were discussed. The results showed that the expansion pressure of polymer grout gradually increased with time under the fixed volume conditions, and the grout expansion pressure increased as the density increased. The final grout expansion pressure will increase with the increase of initial temperature or the content of physical blowing agent. Under the fixed confining pressure condition, the polymer grout density gradually decreased with time, the grout density increased as the confining pressure increased while the conversions of the two components alcohol and isocyanate increased. The final density decreases with the increase of initial temperature or the content of physical blowing agent.

Compressive Mechanical Behavior and Corresponding Failure Mechanism of Polymethacrylimide Foam Induced by Thermo-Mechanical Coupling.

Thermal-mechanical coupling during the molding process can cause compressive yield in the polymer foam core and then affect the molding quality of the sandwich structure. This work investigates the compressive mechanical properties and failure mechanism of polymethacrylimide (PMI) foam in the molding temperature range of 20-120 °C. First, the DMA result indicates that PMI foam has minimal mechanical loss in the 20~120 °C range and can be regarded as an elastoplastic material, and the TGA curve further proves that the PMI foam is thermally stable within 120 °C. Then, the compression results show that compared with 20 °C, the yield stress and elastic modulus of PMI foam decrease by 22.0% and 17.5% at 80 °C and 35.2% and 31.4% at 120 °C, respectively. Meanwhile, the failure mode changes from brittle fracture to plastic yield at about 80 °C. Moreover, a real representative volume element (rRVE) of PMI foam is established by using Micro-CT and Avizo 3D reconstruction methods, and the simulation results indicate that PMI foam mainly shows brittle fractures at 20 °C, while both brittle fractures and plastic yield occur at 80 °C, and most foam cells undergo plastic yield at 120 °C. Finally, the simulation based on a single-cell RVE reveals that the air pressure inside the foam has an obvious influence of about 6.7% on the yield stress of PMI foam at 80 °C (brittle-plastic transition zone).