Ak. Maji et al., EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF TENSILE FRACTURE IN POLYURETHANE FOAMS, Journal of materials in civil engineering, 7(4), 1995, pp. 258-264
Citations number
19
Categorie Soggetti
Material Science","Engineering, Civil","Construcion & Building Technology
Polyurethane foams have been used for their shock-absorption propertie
s in various packaging applications. In many lightweight structural ap
plications, polyurethane foams are used as the core material in sandwi
ch beams or in panel construction. The mechanical properties of these
foams have come under increased scrutiny because of their application
to nuclear-waste shipment packages, and their use as ''bone simulants'
' in testing orthopedic implants. This paper describes a number of tes
ts performed on polyurethane foams of various densities to understand
their tensile fracture characteristics. Uniaxial tension, torsion, and
Flexure tests were conducted to study size effect and other fracture-
related phenomena. Nonlinear fracture phenomena were studied using opt
ical microscopy and holographic interferometry at the microscopic and
macroscopic level. Uniaxial tensile tests show linear elastic response
leading to brittle failure. However, other experiments demonstrate no
nlinear phenomena such as the existence of a fracture process zone and
the demonstration of a size effect less than that predicted by linear
elastic fracture mechanics. Factors affecting various mechanical prop
erties were examined with the existing theories of solid mechanics.