Structural Modeling in the Mechanics of Porous Materials

A new method for analyzing the deformation behavior of rigid and elastic foams with a small volume content of solid phase (ϕ < 0.2) is developed. Various structural models for describing the elastic behavior of rigid and elastic plastic foams are used and compared. The results of structural simulation of anisotropic auxetic (i.e., having a negative Poisson ratio) foams with concave cells are presented. For cyclic uniaxial compression of rigid foams and volumetric deformation of elastic foams, the stress-strain curves are obtained. The general shape of the curves agrees well with the nonlinearly elastic behavior of plastic foams observed in experiments.