2019/03/01 by Zeshan Yousaf, Yousaf, Z., M. J. A. Smith +5
Engineering · Materials Science · #Cellular and Composite Structures #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Polymer Foaming and Composites #Polymer composites and self-healing
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1903.00397
openalex publication_date 2019/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Syntactic foams are composite materials frequently used in applications requiring the properties of low density and high damage tolerance. In the present work, polymer-based syntactic foams were studied under cyclic compression in order to investigate their compressibility, recoverability, energy dissipation and damage tolerance. These syntactic foams were manufactured by adding hollow polymer microspheres of various sizes and wall thicknesses into a polyurethane matrix. The associated loading and unloading curves during cyclic testing were recorded, revealing the viscoelastic nature of the materials. SEM images of the samples were obtained in order to study potential damage mechanisms during compression. It was observed that these syntactic foams exhibit high elastic recovery and energy dissipation over a wide range of compressional strains and the addition of polymer microspheres mitigate the damage under compressional loading.