FLASHFOAM : a triboluminescent polymer foam for mechanical sensing.

Abstract

The formulation and processing of a brittle polyurethane foam containing triboluminescent powder additives is described. ). In each instance, the powders were mixed into the polyol component of the foam. When combined with the isocyanate component, the resulting foams had these powders incorporated into their cellular structure so as to induce a triboluminescent response upon crushing during impact testing.The triboluminescent response of foam specimens containing each of these powder additives was characterized by measuring: the time rate of change in the optical output (measured as Watts), the peak optical output, the total integrated output (Watt-seconds), during the impact event.Foams containing the europate compound were found to yield several orders of magnitude higher output when compared to the sugar-containing foam.Strain rate and concentration of the powder (in the foam) were important variables with respect to optical output. Both the peak and total triboluminescent output increased with increasing powder concentration. Peak output was also found to increase with increasing strain rate. However, the total output was found to be roughly constant for a given concentration regardless of strain rate (over the strain rate range: 20 sec -1