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Modelling a Solid Rigid Foam

Brad Hills

New member
Hi there,

I am currently working on a project in which I have to model several cylindrical specimens made out of Polyurethane Foam. I am really struggling to model a foam material. The only way I have considered doing it is to model each pore of the foam and possibly use the pattern tool to create a random field. The only problem with this is that it is very time consuming.

Does anyone know a potential way to speed up this process or does anyone know how to apply a foam texture to a part?

I am using PTC Creo Parametric 2

Thanks for the help in advance
 
There is no way I would try to model the pores in a foam unless you absolutely have to for a CFD analysis. Generally, you would just model the shape. Trying to make accurate models of woven or cellular materials is really compute intensive, very hard to justify. You should be able to just use a texture.
 
You need to model it for aesthetic purposes? If so then it depends of what you want to produce in the end, a rendering, technical illustration etc.

When adding "LEGO" logos on my LEGO parts models I just modeled the logo in a different part, then imported and patterned it as geometry in my models. You could do the same with a surface sphere imported and solidified over a random spread of coordinate systems. If the material is opaque you need to do it only on the exterior faces, not on the whole volume.
 
I would use either a surface texture or hatch. The main problem with an accurate looking representation is that when it's printed it will look horrible and a big blob on the paper.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone.

Basically, for this project I am looking at compression testing on these foams. I am trying to generated the foam structure so that I can model FEA accurately so that I can compare the practical testing to theoretical testing. My supervisor has informed me that it is probably necessary to model the actual cellular structure to acquire reliable and accurate theoretical results. Apologies that I didn't include this info originally.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone!

The project I am working on looks at compressive testing on PU foams. I am comparing practical results to theoretical results therefore I am going to be completing FEA on a cad model. My supervisor recommends that the CAD model has a rigid cellular structure (as with the foam used in the practical) to gain the most reliable and accurate data. Apologies for not including this info before.
 

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