Continuum representations of cellular solids
Cellular materials consist of interconnected struts or plates which form cells. The struts or plates are constructed from a variety of metals, polymers, ceramics and wood products. Cellular materials are often used in impact limiters for shipping containers to protect the contents from accidental impact events. These materials exhibit a variety of complex behavior when subjected to crushing loads. This research focuses on the development of continuum representations of cellular solids that can be used in the finite element analysis of shipping container accidents. A significant portion of this work is the development of a new methodology to relate localized deformations to appropriate constitutive descriptions. This methodology provides the insight needed to select constitutive descriptions for cellular solids that capture the localized deformations that are observed experimentally. Constitutive relations are developed for two different cellular materials, aluminum honeycomb and polyurethane foam. These constitutive relations are based on plasticity and continuum damage theories. Plasticity is used to describe the permanent deformation exhibited by both aluminum honeycomb and polyurethane foam. Continuum damage is needed to capture the change in elastic parameters due to cracking of the polyurethane cell wall materials. The new constitutive description of polyurethane foam is implemented in both static and dynamic finite element codes, and analytical and numerical predictions are compared with available experimental data.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 10190111
- Report Number(s):
- SAND--93-1287; ON: DE94001706; BR: GB0103012
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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