Polymer Engineering and Science, Vol.39, No.10, 2064-2074, 1999
Vacuum forming of thermoplastic foam
The process of thermoforming of foam sheet is analyzed using both finite element modeling and experiments. A simple constitutive model for finite tensile deformations of closed cellular material around its glass transition temperature is proposed, starting from well-known results from Gibson and Ashby (1988). The model is implemented in a finite element code and applied in isothermal vacuum forming simulations. The distributions of thickness and in plane strains are in adequate accordance to the experimental results.
Keywords:LINEAR ELASTIC PROPERTIES;OPEN-CELL FOAMS;FAILURE SURFACES;MULTIAXIAL LOADS;MECHANICS;BEHAVIOR;MODELS;SIZE