A parametric study on crushability of open-cell structural polymeric foams

A five-parameter nonlinear phenomenological constitutive model, capable of capturing the entire stress-strain response of crushable polymeric foams, is presented. The functional form of each parameter in the model was determined using uniaxial-strain compression experiments on cylindrical foam specimens of different initial bulk densities (or porosities). Two-step and multistep loading procedures were employed during the uniaxial-strain compression experiments to investigate crushability and residual crushability of foams and to generate additional data at different porosity levels that were not originally available. Thus, specimens with certain initial low densities were repeatedly used to obtain stress-strain curves at increasingly high densities. Based on the experimental data, each parameter of the model was expressed in terms of initial bulk density (or porosity). Such relationships were shown to be useful in generating \u27crushability-maps\u27 that could be utilized to evaluate the residual crushability and/or for selection of a suitable density of foam for a given application. © 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc