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Synthetic open-cell foams have a complex microstructure consisting of an interconnected network of cells resulting from the foaming process. The cells are irregular polyhedra with anywhere from 9 to 17 faces in nearly monodisperse foams. The material is concentrated in the nearly straight ligaments and in the nodes where they intersect. The mechanical properties of such foams are governed by their microstructure and by the properties of the base material. In this study micro-computed X-ray tomography is used to develop 3D images of the morphology of polyester urethane and Duocel aluminum foams with different average cell sizes. The images are used to establish statistically the cell size and ligament length distributions, material distributions along the ligaments, the geometry of the nodes and cell anisotropy. The measurements are then used to build finite element foam models of increasing complexity that are used to estimate the elastic moduli.In the most idealized model the microstructure is represented as a regular Kelvin cell. The most realistic models are based on Surface Evolver simulations of random soap froth with N 3 cells in spatially periodic domains. In all models the cells are elongated in one direction, the ligaments are straight but have a nonuniform cross sectional area distribution and are modeled as shear deformable beams. With this input both the Kelvin cell models and the larger random foam models are shown to predict the elastic moduli with good accuracy but the random foams are 5-10% stiffer.

The drainage of liquid in a foam may be described in terms of a nonlinear partial differential equation for the foam density as a function of time and vertical position. We review the history and recent development of this theory, analysing various exact and approximate solutions and relating them to each other.

The Surface Evolver was used to calculate the equilibrium microstructure of random monodisperse soap froth, starting from Voronoi partitions of randomly packed spheres. The sphere packing has a strong influence on foam properties, such as E (surface free energy) and (average number of faces per cell). This means that random foams composed of equal-volume cells come in a range of structures with different topological and geometric properties. Annealing-subjecting relaxed foams to large-deformation, tension-compression cycles-provokes topological transitions that can further reduce E and . All of the foams have

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A micromechanical analysis for the linear elastic behavior of a low-density foam with open cells is presented. The foam structure is based on the geometry of a Kelvin soap froth with flat faces: 14-sided polyhedral cells contain six squares and eight hexagons. Four struts meet at every joint in the perfectly ordered, spatially periodic, open-cell structure. All of the struts and joints have identical shape. Strut-level force-displacement relations are expressed by compliances for stretching, bending, and twisting. We consider arbitrary homogeneous deformations of the foam and present analytic results for the force, moment, and displacement at each strut midpoint and the rotation at each joint. The effective stress-strain relations for the foam, which has cubic symmetry, are represented by three elastic constants, a bulk modulus, and two shear moduli, that depend on the strut compliances. When these compliances are evaluated for specific strut geometries, the shear moduli are nearly equal and therefore the elastic response is nearly isotropic. The variational results of Hashin and Shtrikman are used to calculate the effective isotropic shear modulus of a polycrystal that contain grains of Kelvin foam.

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A theoretical model for the linear elastic properties of three-dimensional open-cell foams is developed. We consider a tetrahedral unit cell, which contains four identical half-struts that join at equal angles, to represent the essential microstructural features of a foam. The effective continuum stress is obtained for an individual tetrahedral element arbitrarily oriented with respect to the principal directions of strain. The effective elastic constants for a foam are determined under the assumption that all possible orientations of the unit cell are equally probable in a representative volume element. The elastic constants are expressed as functions of compliances for bending and stretching of a strut, whose cross section is permitted to vary with distance from the joint, so the effect of strut morphology on effective elastic properties can be determined. Strut bending is the primary distortional mechanism for low-density foams with tetrahedral microstructure. For uniform strut cross section, the effective Young’s modulus is proportional to the volume fraction of solid material squared, and the coefficient of proportionality depends upon the specific strut shape. A similar analysis for cellular materials with cubic microstructure indicates that strut extension is the dominant distortional mechanism and that the effective Young’s modulus is linear in volume fraction. Our results emphasize the essential role of microstructure in determining the linear elastic properties of cellular materials and provide a theoretical framework for investigating nonlinear behavior.