Large-scale 3D RVE modelling of closed-cell foams for structural analysis

Abstract

Closed-cell foams are highly valued for their superior stiffness-to-weight ratios and energy absorption capacities, making them appealing for various lightweight structural applications. The accurate prediction of their mechanical properties is hindered by the random nature of foams, which is addressed in this paper by proposing a large-scale three-dimensional (3D) representative volume element (RVE) framework containing 1000 cells. This RVE model is generated by randomly distributing seed points within a cubic domain to form polyhedral cells via Voronoi tessellation. Adopting such a large number of internal cells is essential to effectively capture the statistical and geometric characterist..