Effect of strain rate and density on dynamic behaviour of syntactic foam

Abstract The final objective of this study is to improve the mechanical behaviour of composite sandwich structures under dynamic loading (impact or crash). Cellular materials are often used as core in sandwich structures and their behaviour has a significant influence on the response of the sandwich under impact. Syntactic foams are widely used in many impact-absorbing applications and can be employed as sandwich core. To optimize their mechanical performance requires the characterisation of the foam behaviour at high strain rates and identification of the underlying mechanisms. Mechanical tests were conducted on syntactic foams under quasi-static and high strain rate compression loading. The material behaviour has been determined as a function of two parameters, density and strain rate. These tests were complemented by experiments on a new device installed on a flywheel. This device was designed in order to achieve compression tests on foam at intermediate strain rates. With these test machines, the dynamic compressive behaviour has been evaluated in the strain rate range up [6.7 · 10 −4  s −1 , 100 s −1 ]. Impact tests were conducted on syntactic foam plates with varying volume fractions of microspheres and impact conditions. A Design of Experiment tool was employed to identify the influence of the three parameters (microsphere volume fraction, projectile mass and height of fall) on the energy response. Microtomography was employed to visualize in 3D the deformation of the structure of hollow spheres to obtain a better understanding of the micromechanisms involved in energy absorption.

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