Application of variational asymptotical method for unit cell homogenization (VAMUCH) in the prediction of mechanical properties for microcellular plastics

This study presents the application of Variational Asymptotical Method for Unit Cell Homogenization (VAMUCH) with a three-dimensional unit cell (UC) structure and finite element analysis for analyzing and predicting the effective elastic properties of microcellular injection molded plastics. A series of injection molded plastic samples with microcellular foamed structures were produced and their mechanical properties were compared with predicted values. The results show that for most material samples, the numerical prediction is in fairly good agreement with the experimental results, which suggests the applicability and reliability of VAMUCH in analyzing the mechanical properties of porous materials. Other findings are that the material characteristics (e.g., brittleness and ductility) can influence the predicted results and that VAMUCH prediction can effectively be improved when the UC structure is more representative of the real composition.