Comportement des matériaux cellulaires sous sollicitations dynamiques. Partie 2 : approche multi-échelles

A multi scale methodology is proposed for the study of the cellular material behavior under dynamic loading. The behavior of polymeric foams studied depends on the constitutive material and the morphology of the porous structure. The cellular material of this study is constituted of millimetric porous beads, these beads are themselves constituted of microscopic closed cells. The methodology proposed to model the multi scale morphology of the structure (the scales of beads and cells) of the cellular material; it consists in implementing simple mechanical models at the different scales to reproduce the complex physical phenomenon observed and to model the macroscopic response of the foam. The observation and the analysis of physical phenomenon is the first step of the multi scale modeling. This paper describes the experimental and numerical methods used to observe and describe the structure of the cellular material, and quantify deformations and damages of these structures at the scales of beads and cells. Two ways of modeling were investigated: a finite-element model to represent the bead structure and another approach, more original, by the use of a modified discrete element model to model the microscopic structure of the cells.