Numerical Evaluation of the Size-Dependent Elastic Properties of Cellular Polymers

Abstract

Several experimental studies have revealed that the size-dependent deformation in polymers at nano- to micro-meter length scales is significantly associated with elastic deformation. Such size-dependent deformation in polymers is expected to affect the in-plane macroscopic elastic properties of cellular polymers with micrometer-sized cells. A finite element (FE) formulation of a higher-order elasticity theory is applied to evaluate the in-plane macroscopic elastic properties of different polymer cellular geometries by varying the cell size from the macroscopic to micron length scale. For a given relative density of the cellular solid, a reduction in the cell size from the macroscopic to micron length scale resulted in geometry-specific variations in the in-plane macroscopic elastic moduli and Poisson's ratios. Furthermore, an increase in the relative density for a given cell size revealed variations in the size dependence of the elastic properties. The size dependence of elastic properties is interpreted based on the influence of rotation gradients with varying cell size of the cellular solid. Also, the evaluated size-dependent elastic properties are compared with the available analytical solutions from the literature.