RIGID POLYURETHANE FOAM AS AN ENERGY ABSORBING CORE FOR COMPOSITE COMPONENTS MANUFACTURED BY RESIN TRANSFER MOLDING (RTM) .1. DETERMINATIONOF PROPERTIES

With the increasing awareness of the importance of crashworthy design in virtually every transport sector there comes a requirement for mate rials with good energy absorption properties. This paper describes one such material, a rigid polyurethane foam, which can also be used as a core material for composite components manufactured by resin transfer moulding (RTM). An experimental investigation into the crushing respo nse of this foam has demonstrated that the energy absorbed per unit ma ss increases with foam density. This is an important observation. The non-linear increase in energy absorption with density indicates that, in non-mass critical applications, there is an incentive to sacrifice mass for improved energy absorption capability.