Structure-Property Relationships in Viscoelastic Foams

Abstract: This research develops an approach to accurately predict the mechanical response of viscoelastic foams using experimentally measured properties of a fully dense base resin. The base resin forms the struts and vertices of a dodecahedral construction that models the foam microstructure. This work has been conducted as a part of a broad investigation, a focus of which has been to adapt and develop recently established modeling frameworks for the post-buckling response of constrained elastic lattices into an additional framework for the rapid modeling and prediction of the full non-linear response of stochastic, viscoelastic foams. This investigation lays the experimental foundation upon which the modeling framework was both calibrated and validated against. Coupling mechanical testing with scanning electron microscopy, qualitative observations and quantitative, stochastic descriptions of foam microstructure are used to establish structure-property relationships and provide the data necessary for model calibration. A novel technique is proposed for the estimation of strut thickness from 2-D micrographs, that then form the basis for statistically meaningful microstructures.