Shock compression of polyurethane foams

Several shock studies have been made on polyurethane materials, both fully dense and distended in the form of foams. However, there is a lack of shock data between the densities of 0.321 and 1.264g/cm3 (fully dense). We present here data obtained from two different types of shock experiments at densities of 0.35, 0.5, 0.68, 0.78, and 0.9g/cm3 in order to fill in the density deficiencies and make it easier to develop an unreacted equation of state (EOS) for polyurethane as a function of density. A thermodynamically consistent EOS was developed, based on the Helmholtz free energy, and was used to predict the shock properties of polyurethane materials at densities from 1.264 to 0.348g/cm3. These estimates are compared to the available data. The data match quite close to the predictions and provide a basis for calculating polyurethane foam shock processes. Chemical reaction has been observed at relatively high pressure (21.7 GPa) in fully dense polyurethane in an earlier study, and the equation of state presented here is representative of the unreacted polyurethane foam. Lowering the density is expected to drop the shock pressure for chemical reaction, yet there is not enough data to address the low density shock reaction thresholds in this study

Shock compression of polyurethane foams

Several shock studies have been made on polyurethane materials, both fully dense and distended in the form of foams. However, there is a lack of shock data between the densities of 0.321 and 1.264g/cm3 (fully dense). We present here data obtained from two different types of shock experiments at densities of 0.35, 0.5, 0.68, 0.78, and 0.9g/cm3 in order to fill in the density deficiencies and make it easier to develop an unreacted equation of state (EOS) for polyurethane as a function of density. A thermodynamically consistent EOS was developed, based on the Helmholtz free energy, and was used to predict the shock properties of polyurethane materials at densities from 1.264 to 0.348g/cm3. These estimates are compared to the available data. The data match quite close to the predictions and provide a basis for calculating polyurethane foam shock processes. Chemical reaction has been observed at relatively high pressure (21.7 GPa) in fully dense polyurethane in an earlier study, and the equation of state presented here is representative of the unreacted polyurethane foam. Lowering the density is expected to drop the shock pressure for chemical reaction, yet there is not enough data to address the low density shock reaction thresholds in this study

The dynamic response of carbon fiber-filled polymer composites

The dynamic (shock) responses of two carbon fiber-filled polymer composites have been quantified using gas gun-driven plate impact experimentation. The first composite is a filament-wound, highly unidirectional carbon fiber-filled epoxy with a high degree of porosity. The second composite is a chopped carbon fiber- and graphite-filled phenolic resin with little-to-no porosity. Hugoniot data are presented for the carbon fiber-epoxy (CE) composite to 18.6 GPa in the through-thickness direction, in which the shock propagates normal to the fibers. The data are best represented by a linear Rankine-Hugoniot fit: Us = 2.87 + 1.17 ×up(ρ0 = 1.536g/cm3). The shock wave structures were found to be highly heterogeneous, both due to the anisotropic nature of the fiber-epoxy microstructure, and the high degree of void volume. Plate impact experiments were also performed on a carbon fiber-filled phenolic (CP) composite to much higher shock input pressures, exceeding the reactants-to-products transition common to polymers. The CP was found to be stiffer than the filament-wound CE in the unreacted Hugoniot regime, and transformed to products near the shock-driven reaction threshold on the principal Hugoniot previously shown for the phenolic binder itself. [19] On-going research is focused on interrogating the direction-dependent dyanamic response and dynamic failure strength (spall) for the CE composite in the TT and 0∘ (fiber) directions