LOW DENSITY OPEN CELL FLEXIBLE FOAMS WITH HIGH TORTUOSITIES AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON THE STRAIN RATE

摘要

This paper describes the mechanical behavior in compression, at both low and high strain rates, of several low density open cell polyolefin cellular materials with different gas phase tortuosity of the cellular structure. Due to the high tortuosity of some of the polyolefin foams under study they have a mechanical behavior similar to that of open cell polyurethane foams at low strain rates (i.e. they could be used for comfort applications) and they have a similar mechanical behavior to that of closed cell polyolefin foams at high strain rates (i.e. they could be used in body protection applications). Therefore, these new materials with high tortuosities have an unique mechanical performance strongly influence by the strain rate.