Material characterization of open-cell foams by finite element based micromechanics methods

Finite element based micromechanics methods have been used for predicting elastic properties, failure strengths, mode-I, mode-II and mixed mode fracture toughness of open-cell foams. In predicting the orthotropic elastic properties, foams with both equisided and Kelvin-elongated tetrakaidecahedron unit cells are studied. Periodic Boundary Conditions (PBCs) exploiting the special repeating microstructural geometry for these materials have been derived and have been applied on the micromechanical model to calculate the elastic properties. It is shown that the results for the elastic constants from these finite element based models agree well with the available analytical models. Further studies such as effect of a varying strut cross-section over a uniform strut cross-section on the elastic properties are also done in the same context.;Next, the procedures used for predicting the above elastic properties are extended to predict multi-axial failure strengths of these low density open cell foams with a microstructure made out of tetrakaidecahedral unit cells. Again, foams with both equisided tetrakaidecahedron and Kelvin-elongated tetrakaidecahedron as unit cells are studied. Failure strengths in different material directions are computed using direct Micromechanics based Methods (DMM). Further, the effect of a varying strut cross section over a uniform strut cross section on failure strengths is also presented. Bi-axial failure envelopes for foams with equisided tetrakaidecahedron unit cells are shown to take the shape of a regular hexagon in the hydrostatic plane. The tri-axial failure envelope for foams made out of equisided tetrakaidecahedron unit cells is shown to have a shape of a double hexagonal pyramid. The bi-axial and tri-axial failure envelopes of foams with elongated tetrakaidecahedron unit cells are also plotted and the effect of anisotropy in foams with these unit cells on the failure envelopes is also discussed.;Next, global-local models are developed to predict fracture toughness of open cell foams. An approach of imposing displacements on the K-field boundary of the micromechanical model for finding the maximum tensile stress at the crack tip is used for predicting the fracture toughness of the foam. A convergence study is conducted by testing different model sizes to show that the calculated value of fracture toughness is an acceptable material property.