Characterization of tetrakaidecahedral closed-cell cellular materials

To investigate the influence of cellular materials microstructure on it's properties, numerical simulation is done by closed-cell tetrakaidecahedron model with thick edge. By finite elements method, relative elastic modulus and Poisson' ratio are calculated. Simulation results show: single-cell wall thickness is the secondary factor of relative density increment, and wall-face connective curvature radius is the primary factor of the increment. The wall thickness and wall-face connective curvature radius can be simplified as two independent factors of relative density. For high porosity cellular materials, the solid of which the surface tension draws to cell-edge has little influence on relative elastic modulus, but for low porosity cellular materials, the influence becomes greater. The dependence of relative density on microstructure, the unitary relation and the influence of microstructure and relative density on relative elastic modulus and Poisson' ratio are obtained.