Thermal aging of traditional and additively manufactured foams: analysis by time-temperature-superposition, constitutive, and finite-element models
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Cellular solids or foams are a very important class of materials with diverse applications ranging from thermal insulation and shock absorbing support cushions, to light-weight structural and floatation components, and constitute crucial components in a large number of industries including automotive, aerospace, electronics, marine, biomedical, packaging, and defense. In many of these applications the foam material is subjected to long periods of continuous stress, which can, over time, lead to a permanent change in structure and a degradation in performance. In this report we summarize our modeling efforts to date on polysiloxane foam materials that form an important component in our systems. Aging of the materials was characterized by two measured quantities, i.e., compression set and load retention. Results of accelerated aging experiments were analyzed by an automated time-temperaturesuperposition (TTS) approach, which creates a master curve that can be used for long-term predictions (over decades) under ambient conditions. When comparing such master curves for traditional (stochastic) foams with those for recently 3D-printed (i.e., additively manufactured, or AM) foams, it became clear that AM foams have superior aging behavior. To gain deeper understanding, we imaged the microstructure of both foams using X-ray computed tomography, and performed finite-element analysis of the mechanical response within these microstructures. This indicates a wider stress variation in the stochastic foam with points of more extreme local stress as compared to the 3D printed material.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344
- OSTI ID:
- 1342055
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-TR-713677
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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