Simulation of the Acoustic Environment for the Manufacture of Graded Porosity Materials by Sonication

C. Torres-Sanchez, and J. R. Corney
University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom
Publié en 2008

Many materials require functionally graded cellular microstructures whose porosity is engineered to meet specific requirements of diverse applications. It has been shown in previous work that the bubble growth rate of a polymeric foam can be influenced by the surrounding acoustic environment and, once solidified, produce a solid of graded porosity.

Motivated by the desire to create a flexible process for engineering graded foams this work investigated how a COMSOL® model was developed for assessing the acoustic environment that a foaming melt was subjected to. The model has demonstrated good correspondence with the experimental results.