High-strain-rate Compressive Behavior of a Rigid
Polyurethane Foam with Various Densities
by W. Chen, F. Lu, and N. Winfree
ABSTRACT--The dynamic compressivestress-strain behav-
ior of a rigid polyurethane foam with four values of density (78,
154, 299, and 445 kg/m 3) has been determined in the strain-
rate range of 1000-5000 s -1. A pulse shaping technique was
used with a split Hopkinson pressure bar to ensure homo-
geneous deformation in the foam specimens under dynamic
compression. Dynamic stress equilibrium in the specimen
was monitored during each experiment using piezoelectric
force transducers mounted close to the specimen end-faces.
Quasi-static experiments were also performed to demonstrate
rate effects. Experimental results show that both the quasi-
static and the dynamic stress-strain curves of the foam exhibit
linear elasticity at small strains until a peak is reached. After
the peak, the stress-strain curves have a plateau region fol-
lowed by a densification region. The peak stress is strain-rate
sensitive and depends on the square of the foam density.
KEY WORDS--Polymeric foam, high strain rate, stress-strain
behavior, Hopkinson bar
Introduction
Introducing gas bubbles into a liquid monomer or hot poly-
mer before solidification creates engineered polymer foams
that have much lower densities than solid polymers. These
lightweight and cost-effective materials have been used in a
wide range of applications, from disposable coffee cups to
shock mitigation devices. 1-3 Mankind has used natural and
engineered foams for a long period of time. Consequently,
the mechanical behavior and other properties associated with
foams have been investigated for a variety of applications.
In the second edition of their popular book, Gibson and
Ashby 4 provide an extensive survey of the research results
on cellular solids with applications from packaging cush-
ions to lightweight structures. Recently, the investigation
of the mechanical behavior of foams has been extended to
micromechanical scales. 5 The impact response of polymer
foams has been studied using a pneumatically driven ICI im-
pact machine 6 and under high-speed impact conditions] In
particular, polyurethane foams have found wide applications
in new automobile bumper designs, 8 in occupant protection
under impact, 9 and in shock-isolating encapsulation.l~ Lank-
ford and Dannemann 11 used a drop-weight tower to inves-
W. Chen (SEM Member) is an Associate Professor, and E Lu was a Post-
Doctoral Research Associate, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical
Engineering, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0119. N. Win-
free is Principal Engineer, Dominca, Albuquerque, NM 87111-1343.
Original manuscript submitted: September 25, 2000.
Final manuscript received: September 10, 2001.
tigate the dynamic response of elastomeric polymer foams
and found their stress-strain behavior to be rate dependent.
Polyimide foams also have found applications in aerospace
vehicles. 3
When polymeric foams are used in aircraft and automo-
tive components or in shock-absorbing packaging elements,
it is necessary to understand the dynamic foam properties
under impact loading conditions. However, experimental
data on the mechanical responses of low-density foams are
far less available under high-strain-rate loading conditions
than under quasi-static conditions. In particular, reliable
experimental techniques need to be developed to obtain
accurate dynamic material properties. Dynamic tests have
been conducted in industry to characterize the impact energy
absorption behavior of rigid polymer foams using a drop-
weight tower or a tup 12 or simulated head-impact using a
dynamic impact sled. 9 Constitutive relations have also been
extracted from test data obtained from constant-velocity (up
to 6.71 m/s) impact using an MTS machine, which showed
that the stress-strain behavior of polyurethane foams under
the test conditions were dependent on density, temperature,
and loading rate. 13 Due to the lack of material properties un-
der impact loading conditions, it is highly desirable to obtain
dynamic stress-strain curves at higher strain rates directly
from carefully controlled experiments. Such data are es-
sential for conducting realistic numerical simulations for the
safety design of structures.
In this paper, we present a modified split Hopkinson bar
technique that conducts valid dynamic compressive experi-
ments on low-strength and low-mechanical-impedance mate-
rials such as polymeric foams. To ensure that stress and strain
data were obtained from a specimen under homogeneous de-
formation and dynamic stress equilibrium, axial force histo-
ries on the specimen ends were monitored during each exper-
iment Using piezoelectric force transducers mounted on the
bars very close to the specimen. Constant strain rate in the
specimen was achieved using a pulse-shaping technique and
was monitored using the reflected pulse in the incident bar.
Experiments were conducted on a rigid polyurethane foam
with four values of density. The following sections describe
the experiments and present the results for the polyurethane
foams.
Experimental Set-up and Specimen Preparation
Specimens
The polyurethane foams were manufactured at four dif-
ferent mass densities: 445, 299, 154, and 78 kg/m 3. An
Experimental Mechanics 9 65
examination of the microstructure (Fig. 1) indicates that the
foam has a typical closed-cell structure. Applied Research
Associates, Albuquerque, NM, provided the foam with the
highest density. Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore,
CA, provided the materials with the other three densities.
Specimens used in the experiments were in the shape of fight
circular cylinders, with a diameter of 12.7 mm. Cylinders of
16 mm diameter were core-drilled from 50 mm thick foam
plates. The cylinders were then turned to the final diameter
on a lathe. The thickness of the cylindrical specimens was
small, as compared to typical quasi-static test specimens, to
facilitate dynamic stress equilibrium during the early stages
of the experiment. After trial experiments monitored the
dynamic equilibrium process, the specimen thickness for dy-
namic experiments was determined to be 3 mm, except for
the lightest foam whose thickness was 1.7 mm.
Dynamic Experimental Set-up
A modified split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) was
used to conduct the dynamic compressive experiments. A
schematic of the modified SHPB facility is shown in Fig. 2.
The lengths of the 7075-T651 aluminum alloy bars used for
the experiments were 1830, 762, and 305 mm for the incident,
transmitter, and striker bars, respectively, with a common di-
ameter of 19 mm. The strain signals from the incident and
transmitter bars were recorded with a Tektronix TDS 420A
digital storage oscilloscope through ADA400A differential
amplifiers. Two strain gages were attached to the opposite
sides of the bar diameter at each axial gage location. The
use of this aluminum-bar and double-gage configuration ef-
fectively increased the amplitude of the weak pulse trans-
mitted from the low-strength foam specimen, as compared
to a conventional steel SHPB which is not capable of testing
such soft materials. 14,15 To ensure that a dynamic equilibrium
stress state was reached in the specimen during testing before
failure occurred at any part of the specimen, a sharp-rising
loading pulse as typically seen in a SHPB experiment was
avoided. Instead, a pulse shaper (a copper disk or a stack
of plastically deformable disks) was placed on the impact
end of the incident bar to control the shape of the loading
pulse. To monitor the dynamic stress equilibrium process,
Fig. 1--Typical microstructure of the polyurethane foam with
a density of 78 kg/m 3.
66 9 Vol. 42, No. 1, March 2002
two 0.254 mm thick circular piezoelectric force transducers
(X-cut quartz crystal disks of the same diameter as the bars)
were mounted close to the specimen end faces on the inci-
dent and transmitter bars, respectively (Fig. 2), so that axial
load histories on the front and back surfaces of the speci-
men could be recorded. The mechanical impedance of the
self-generating quartz transducer is very close to the mechan-
ical impedance of the aluminum bars, which ensures that
the introduction of the quartz disks does not affect the one-
dimensional wave propagation in the bars) 5 Quartz-crystal
force transducers have been used by previous investigators
to measure dynamic force profiles) 6-18 In order to prevent
the large lateral expansion of the soft specimen during ax-
ial compression from damaging the brittle quartz crystal, a
thin aluminum disk the same diameter as the quartz disk was
placed between the quartz and the specimen (Fig. 2). The alu-
minum disk also serves as an electrode to collect charges from
the quartz. For installation of the piezoelectric transducers,
the bar end-surfaces were faced and lapped to be flat to within
0.01 mm and perpendicular to the bar axis to within 0.01 mm.
A Valpey-Fisher X-cut quartz crystal of 19.0504-0.025 mm
in diameter and 0.254-4-0.025 mm in thickness was attached
to the surfaces using a conductive epoxy (TRA-DUCT 2902).
The thin, lapped aluminum disks were then attached to the
other flat surfaces of the quartz crystals using the same con-
ductive epoxy. The specimen-contact surfaces of the alu-
minum disks were lubricated by a thin layer of Vaseline to
minimize the friction effects during a dynamic compressive
experiment. The piezoelectric constant of the quartz crys-
tal is 2.3 x 10 -12 C/N, as given by the manufacturer. 19 The
quartz gage remains very linear up to pressures where dielec-
tric breakdown occurs (at a stress level much higher than the
yield strength of the aluminum bar material). The piezoelec-
tric constant is also not very sensitive to normal variations
in environmental temperature. The electric poles were con-
nected to two charge amplifiers (Kistler 5010B 1), whose out-
puts were recorded using the same high-speed digital storage
oscilloscope (Tektronix TDS 420A) used for data process-
ing. To demonstrate strain-rate effects over a wide range,
quasi-static experiments were conducted using a hydrauli-
cally driven Materials Test System (MTS 810).
Experiments and Results
Pulses Recorded in SHPB Experiments
A typical oscilloscope record for a SHPB experiment is
shown in Fig. 3. The dashed line is the transmitted pulse,
which records the stress history in the specimen. The first
pulse in the solid line is the incident pulse; whereas the sec-
ond is the reflected pulse. If the mechanical impedance of
the specimen is less than that of the bar, the two pulses are
always opposite in sign, as shown in Fig. 3. The shape of the
incident pulse is very different from that obtained from a con-
ventional SHPB experiment. This is a result of the employ-
ment of a carefully selected pulse shaper to ensure a dynamic
equilibrium stress state and a homogeneous deformation at a
constant strain rate in the foam specimen. Trial experiments
were performed using various pulse-shaper configurations to
reach such a state in the specimen at a desired strain rate.
The nearly flat plateau on the reflected pulse shown in Fig. 3
indicates that the specimen deformed at a nearly constant
strain rate. The stress-equilibrium process, which will be

St[ker
I '/
Fig. 2--A schematic of the modified aluminum split Hopkinson pressure bar set-up.
0,03
- - [ncidentrecord
..... Transmittedrecord
002
>
Reflectedpulse
0.01
0 -0
-0.01
-0.02
-0.03 i I i I
-0.0008 -0.0006 -0 0004
Time (s)
Fig. 3--Typical oscilloscope records of an SHPB experiment
on polyurethane foam.
presented in the next section, was recorded by the quartz
crystal gages. A variety of pulse-shaping techniques have
been used in split Hopkinson bar experiments. For example,
Duffy et al. 2~ used a pulse-shaper in the form of a concen-
tric tube to smooth pulses generated by explosive loading in
a torsional Hopkinson bar. Ravichandran and Chen 2] and
Nemat-Nasser, et al. 22 used copper pulse-shapers to achieve
constant strain rates in ceramic testing using a SHPB. Togami
et al. ]8 used a pulse-shaper in a modified SHPB to control
the shape of the loading pulse for accelerometer calibration
and to filter out high-frequency components associated with
the pulse.
In the present research, the pulse-shaper needed to control
the strain rate in the specimen at a desired and constant level
was difficult to determine since the foam behavior was highly
non-linear, which is much more complicated than the linear
stress-strain behavior of ceramics. Furthermore, much less
is known about the dynamic stress-strain behavior of foams.
Therefore, trial experiments were necessary in the selection
of proper pulse-shapers. The reflected and the transmitted
pulses were used to calculate the strain-rate history and dy-
namic stress history in the foam specimen, respectively, ac-
cording to the conventional SHPB data reduction scheme
based on 1-D wave propagation theory. 23,24 Time integra-
tion of the strain rate gave the dynamic strain history in the
Quartz Alumirlum
/y
Incident b a r trarcduo~r'-'~ F Disk Transmissionbar
Pulse shaper
Strain gauge
re[ E, and &- --: Specimen ~F]]
/ Strain gauge
II
Wheat~ene L ChaNe Charge Wheatstone
Bridge AmPlifier Amplifier Bridge
Pre-amplifier
I )
J Pre-amplifier
1
Pre-amplifier I Pre'amplifier I
I Oscilloscope~ l
specimen. The strain rate in the experiment was determined
by the average magnitude of the plateau in the reflected pulse
" 0.009
(Fig. 3). As will be discussed later in this paper, the dynamic
- 0.oo6 >~ behavior of the polyurethane foams was not found to be very
-o.oo~ ~g sensitive to small variations in strain rates in the dynamic
testing range. Also, the Poisson's ratio of the foam was very
low; i.e., there will be little inertia confining in the lateral
-0003 ~ directions during axial impact. Therefore, in the trial experi-
ments to determine a proper pulse-shaper, effort was focused
- -0.006
\ l Transmittedpulse on stress equilibrium, and the constant strain-rate condition
- -0,009 was satisfied only approximately (Fig. 3).
i i I Dynamic Stress Equilibrium Process
-0.0002 0
In SHPB experiments, dynamic stress equilibrium in the
specimen is a fundamental requirement for valid data pro-
cessing because equilibrium is one of the basic assumptions
upon which the SHPB theory was built. When dynamic equi-
librium is impossible to reach, the constitutive behavior may
still be found using a hybrid approach assisted by computer
simulation if the form of the stress-strain relation is known.
However, in most cases, the dynamic stress-strain relations
are to be determined by the SHPB experiments, especially
when the specimen is a soft material. Dynamic equilibrium
must be achieved such that the volume average of the stress-
strain behavior over the entire specimen may be used as the
point-wise material response at a certain strain rate. It is
therefore critical to ensure that the equilibrium conditions are
satisfied in order to obtain valid experimental results. In our
experiments, a piezoelectric X-cut quartz transducer method
was used to directly monitor the dynamic force (and, there-
fore, stress) equilibrium process at the front and back faces
of the specimen, as described earlier. The stress equilibrium
can also be checked by comparing the transmitted signal (1=
wave) with the difference between the incident and reflected
signals (2-wave). 25-27 This idealized method involves un-
certainties in dispersion corrections 28-32 and the distortion
to the incident wave when reflected from a bar/specimen in-
terface. The quartz-crystal method provides a direct experi-
mental measurement of the end forces on the specimen.
One set of the two force histories, which was recorded
by the piezoelectric transducers during an experiment on a
polyurethane foam specimen with a density of 299 kg/m 3,
is presented in Fig. 4. An inspection indicates that the axial
force history at the front face of the specimen, marked as Q 1,
Experimental Mechanics 9 67
 2000
0 I ....... f2: I
-2000
Z
-4000 --
o
LL
-6000 -
-8000 -
-10000
' I ' I ' I
loo 200 300
Time (us)
Fig. 4 - - A x i a l force history m e a s u r e s at the front and back
faces of a f o a m s p e c i m e n .
is approximately the same as the back face force history, Q2,
over the majority of the duration of the experiment. The most
significant differences between the two force histories occur
when there are steep changes in the slopes of the force histo-
ries. The first significant mismatch occurs at the first turning
points on the curves where the collapse of cell walls causes
the stress in the specimen to saturate at a plateau (more discus-
sion on this is available later when addressing stress-strain
behavior). The slope thus changes from a steep loading phase
to zero, where the curves become nearly flat. The second de-
viation occurs when the specimen experiences densification
after most cell walls have collapsed, causing the compressive
stress in the specimen to rise again (a non-zero slope). The
front-face and back-face quartz gage measurements do not
match during unloading. It is concluded from these observa-
tions that significant variations between force histories occur
during a slope change in the force history. This is because of
the low wave velocities in foam specimens that create a time
delay before the back-face transducer detects a sharp change
on the front face of the specimen. The front- and back-face
force transducers may detect similar force histories in shape,
but they do not overlap over time. If severe fluctuations exist
in the loading pulse, such as the incident pulse observed in
a typical conventional SHPB experiment, it is impossible to
achieve and maintain a dynamic stress equilibrium state in the
foam specimen. Such a conventional SHPB incident pulse
contains a very sharp rise, a sharp decay, and radial inertia-
induced oscillations superposed on the plateau, which must
be avoided in testing a low-impedance material. The shape
of the loading pulse should be carefully controlled in order to
maintain dynamic stress equilibrium in the specimen over the
majority of the experiment's duration (i.e., to conduct a valid
SHPB experiment). This was effectively achieved by the
proper use of pulse-shapers in our experiments. We system-
atically tried a series of pulse-shapers in order to minimize
the differences between the front- and back-face force histo-
ries while maintaining a nearly constant strain rate. Another
parameter that significantly influences the dynamic equilib-
rium is the specimen thickness. The thicker the specimen,
the longer it takes to reach equilibrium. Due to the low wave
speeds in the foam specimens (estimated to be ~50-300 rrds
depending on the density), it is necessary to use a thin speci-
men in order to facilitate the dynamic stress equilibrium dur-
68 9 Vol. 42, No. 1, March2002
ing the early stages of an experiment. After t r i a l experiments,
the specimen thickness for the polyurethane foams was de-
termined to be 1.7 mm for the foam with the lowest density
and 3 mm for the other three densities. During an experi-
ment, it is increasingly difficult to maintain dynamic stress
equilibrium in the foam specimen as the mass density of the
foam decreases. It takes longer for the signal indicating a
load change to pass through the foam material with a lower
density. Care also needs to be taken to ensure that the stress
equilibrium has been reached before the cell walls of the foam
start to collapse. If stress equilibrium is not reached, the pro-
cess of wall collapse will be in the form of a failure wave
propagating through the specimen, resulting in an inhomo-
' geneous deformation and an invalid test. It was found in the
400 trial experiments that, only when the specimen thickness was
reduced to 1.7 mm for the polyurethane specimen with the
lowest density, which is significantly larger than the average
cell size of ~0.3 mm (Fig. 1), was it possible to achieve dy-
namic stress equilibrium and a constant strain rate by using
a pulse-shaper.
Dynamic Compressive Stress-strain Curves
Figure 5 summarizes the dynamic compressive stress-
strain curves at strain rates from 1000/s to about 4500/s for
a polyurethane foam with a mass density of 299 kg/m 3. For
clarity, the stress-strain curves are grouped by strain rates.
Figure 5(a) shows the stress-strain curves obtained at strain
rates between 1000 and 3000/s. Figure 5(b) contains the
curves obtained at strain rates near 4500/s. The stress-strain
curves are plotted in measures of engineering stress and en-
gineering strain instead of true stress and true strain, even
though the deformation is large. This is because the vol-
ume of the porous foam specimen is not conserved during
compression. In Fig. 5, the symbols on and around lines rep-
resent experimental data points, whereas the lines are curve-
fitted from the data. All the dynamic compressive stress-
strain curves show very similar characteristics. There ex-
ists a nearly lineal" region where the axial strain is less than
5%. When the compressive strain is ~8%, the stress-strain
curve reaches a peak, followed by a short unstable range
where the stress decreases with increasing strain until the
strain reaches a value of ~13%. Then the stress stays nearly
constant with increasing strain until the strain reaches ~30%,
where the slope of the stress-strain curve becomes positive
again. The stress-strain curve then rises monotonically un-
til unloading. The dynamic compressive stress-strain curves
shown in Fig. 5 are very similar to typical curves obtained
under quasi-static loading conditions, ~ where the initial lin-
ear stress-strain response was considered to be controlled by
the elastic cell-wall bending. The plateau on a compressive
stress-strain curve is associated with the collapse of the cells.
After most of the cells have collapsed and the opposite cell
walls have touched each other, further strain compresses the
solid polyurethane itself, resulting in a rapid rising in the
stress-strain curve. The dynamic experiments reported in
this paper were conducted under carefully controlled condi-
tions under which the specimens were at a dynamic stress
equilibrium. The strain rate was also controlled to be as con-
stant as necessary, such that the inertia effects associated with
axial compression could be neglected. Therefore, the only
difference between the dynamic experiments reported in this
paper and the conventional quasi-static compressive experi-
ments, such as those summarized by Gibson and Ashby, 4 is

10
B-
I "~'~'~ -- ~ ~ "~
v v
1Hi I. . . . t1600/~
t~t [ z at 2650/s
i __ .... t+o~
9 I ' I ' I
0.1 0.2 0.3
Strain
(a)
Fig. 5--Dynamic compressive stress-strain curves for polyurethane foam with a density of 299 kg/m3: (a) strain rates of 1000
to 3000/s; (b) strain rates near 4500/s.
the strain rate. Similar deformation mechanisms associated
with various stages of a quasi-static stress-strain curve are
expected to be applicable to dynamic curves such as the ones
shown in Fig. 5.
At the first peak on the dynamic compressive stress-strain
curves for the 299 kg/m 3 density polyurethane foam, the
stress is approximately 13.5 MPa. Within the dynamic strain
rate range achieved in the SHPB experiments (1000-4500/s),
all the stress-strain curves nearly pass the same peak point
(8% strain and 13.5 MPa stress). Furthermore, all the dy-
namic stress-strain curves also nearly overlap each other until
the strain exceeds ~30%, when the foam has been compacted
considerably. This indicates that the dynamic compressive
response of the polyurethane foam at this density is not sen-
sitive to strain rates in the dynamic range when the axial
compressive strain is less than ~30%.
The stress-strain curves exhibit densification behavior
when the strain exceeds ~30%. When the strain rate is below
3000/s, this densification behavior is difficult to distinguish
from the curves shown in Fig. 5(a) because the foam speci-
mens deform only slightly beyond 30% of strain. During the
SHPB experiments at lower strain rates, the striking velocity
of the striker bar was lowered to achieve a lower strain rate
in the specimen, resulting in smaller input energy to deform
the specimen and, consequently, a smaller strain. Unlike the
overlapping first peak and cell-wall collapse region in the dy-
namic stress-strain curves, the densification behavior is less
consistent. This is consistent with the statistical distribution
of the cells and the stress-strain behavior of solid polymeric
materials, where stress depends on a number of parameters
including strain and strain rate. When densification occurs,
the constitutive behavior of the specimen is closer to that of
the solid polyurethane with statistically distributed defeats
resulted from random cell collapse rather than a much more
porous foam.
Dynamic compressive experiments on the polyurethane
foam of lower densities show constitutive behaviors very
25
o at4300/s / ~ ~o~
-- 4-- at44OO/s ~' I}
-- .e- - - at 4500/s ~ /4~. I
I -- -- ~ -- - at 4450/s ./" ! ~ I{
"~ 15 ~_]2/ ,+'
' I I ' I ' I
0,4 0,2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Strain
(b)
similar to the stress-strain curves shown in Fig. 5, except
for the stress levels. Figure 6 (again grouped into (a) and (b)
for clarity) presents the dynamic compressive stress-strain
curves of the polyurethane foam with a density of 154 kg/m 3
as a function of strain rate. The strain-rate range was from
1050 to 4600/s. The first peak of the curves occurs at a strain
of ~6%, with a corresponding peak stress of approximately
3.8 MPa. Then, the curves gradually enter a nearly flat region
after the strain reaches a value of 10%. The flat region ex-
tends to a strain of 435%, when a densification stage begins.
Before the densification stage, all the stress-strain curves
nearly overlap each other regardless of strain rates, which
again indicates that the mechanical response of the foam ma-
terial at a density of 154 kg/m 3 is insensitive to strain rates
in the strain-rate range of 1050-4600/s. Similar to the re-
sponse of the polyurethane foam at a density of 299 kg/m 3,
the stress-strain response in the densification stage of the
foam at 154 kg/m 3 is less consistent.
Figure 7 summarizes the dynamic compressive stress-
strain curves for the polyurethane foam at a density of
78 kg/m 3 at strain rates from 3200 to 4800/s. Figure 7
again shows similar stress-strain curves for the lower density
foam, only at even lower stress levels. The first peak of the
curves occurs at a strain of ~ 10%, with a peak stress of about
0.75 MPa. Then, the curves gradually enter a nearly flat re-
gion, until the densification stage begins at a strain of ~40%.
Again, the stress level at the first peak does not clearly depend
on the strain rate in the dynamic range, and the densification
behavior is less consistent.
When the foam density is increased to above a certain
level, the strain-rate independence of the first peak on the
dynamic stress-strain curve is not true anymore. Figure 8
presents the dynamic compressive stress-strain curves of the
foam with a density of 445 kg/m 3 as a function of strain rate.
The strain-rate range was in a similar range as before, from
950 to 5300/s. Unlike the cases with lower density foams,
the stress level at the first peak of a stress-strain curve now
Experimental Mechanics 9 69
 10

9 at 4 6 0 0 / s

N,%. & A

r162 II
j i"
6
o_ D_
is=

co
4 , , / !
at t 1 0 0 / s
at 1 7 0 0 / s
at 3 2 5 0 / s
at 3 1 0 0 / s

' I ' I ' ' I ' I ' 1 '

0.2 0.4 0.6 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

Strain Strain

(a) (b)

Fig. 6--Dynamic compressive stress-strain curves for polyurethane foam with a density of 154 kg/m3: (a) strain rates of 1000
to 3300/s; (b) strain rates near 4500/s.

160

---- ~-- -- at 9 5 0 / s
4 at 4 4 0 0 / s ,~, ,
• at 2 3 0 0 / s
at 4 8 0 0 / s
-'~ -- at 3 6 0 0 / s
120 -o - - a15300/s

~" 3
/, !
/
o_
d
v /
8O
2 o3
o/ ol
4O ,.~
f

0 ,v I I 0 I I I I I I i I
0.2 0,4 0.6 0.8
0,2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Strain
Strain

Fig. 7--Dynamic compressive stress-strain curves for Fig. 8--Dynamic compressive stress-strain curves for
polyurethane foam with a density of 78 kg/m 3 at strain rates polyurethane foam with a density of 445 kg/m 3 at strain rates
of 3200 to 4800/s. of 950 to 5300/s.

Effects of Density on the Response of the Polyurethane

clearly depends on the strain rate at which the curve is ob- Foam
tained, which varies from 23.4 MPa at 950/s to 30.0 MPa
at 5300/s. The corresponding axial strain at which the peak Figure 9 summarizes the effects of mass density on the
stress is achieved also varies from 6.7% to 10%, respectively. stress-strain behavior of the polyurethane foam at a strain rate
The peak spans over a much larger strain range as compared to of ~3000/s. As described previously, the dynamic stress-
the foams with lower densities. Densification occurs as early strain curves for the polyurethane foams with four different
as 25% of axial strain in this high-density foam. As pointed densities possess similar characteristics. For each stress-
out by Gibson and Ashby, 4 when the relative density of a strain curve, there is an initial linear stage leading to the first
cellular material is above 0.3, it cannot be treated as a foam peak. There is a nearly flat region after the peak where the
anymore. The density of the solid polyurethane material is cell walls collapse under dynamic compression, which results
approximately 4 1.2 kg/m 3 , which gives the relative density of in permanent damage to the material. Then, densification
the445 kg/m 3 foamtobe0.37. Therefore, thehighest density occurs at large strains where new and denser structures are
foam we tested was not exactly a foam, but was closer to a being formed in the specimen. The first peaks on the curves
porous solid. shown in Fig. 9 are at stress levels of ~ 0 . 7 5 MPa for the

70 9 Vol. 42, No. 1, March 2002

 .t 0.45 g/ccm, at 3600/s
-- ~ - - 0.30 g/ccm, at 2650/s //
i ..~- 0.154 g/ocm, at 3250 /s #/
45
Q_
to
30
co
15 ..&
0 i I ' I '
0.2 0.4 0.6
Strain
Fig. 9 - - E f f e c t s of m a s s d e n s i t y on t h e d y n a m i c compressive
s t r e s s - s t r a i n b e h a v i o r of t h e p o l y u r e t h a n e f o a m at a strain
rates of ~ 3 0 0 0 / s .
78-kg/m3-density foam (can be seen much more clearly
in Fig. 6), ~3.8 MPa for the 154-kg/m3-density foam,
~13.5 MPa for the 299-kg/m3-density foam, and ~ 2 3 -
30 MPa for the 445-kg/m3-density foam. Figure 10 shows
similar curves at a higher strain rate (~5000/s). The dy-
namic peak strengths are independent of the strain rate within
the Hopkinson bar testing range except for the case with the
445-kg/m3-density foam.
The dynamic foam strength at the first peak is found to be
approximately proportional to the square of the density ratios.
This is consistent with the prediction based on the elastic
collapse induced by the cell-wall buckling under quasi-static
compression. 4 Arbitrarily taking the case of the 299-kg/m 3-
density foam as a reference, the dynamic strength at the first
peak, crd, of the foam with other densities can be predicted
approximately as
Gel ---- 13.5 (2@9) 2 MPa,
where 9 is the mass density (in units of kg/m 3) of the
polyurethane foam whose elastic collapse strength (the first
peak) needs to be predicted. A comparison of the predictions
from this simple equation and the results from our experi-
ments is shown in Table 1, which indicates a close agree-
ment between the predictions and the experimental results.
It should be noted that, even though Eq (1) is for predict-
ing the dynamic elastic collapse strength of the polyurethane
foam, the strain rate does not enter into this equation as a pa-
rameter. Therefore, this equation canbe only used in a certain
strain-rate range where the peak strength is not sensitive to
strain rate.
Effects of Strain Rate on the Response of the
Polyurethane Foam
Figure 11 summarizes the quasi-static compressive stress-
strain curves obtained from MTS tests at a strain rate of
10-4/s. The stress-strain curve of the highest density foam
was obtained at the Sandia National Laboratories, Albu-
querque. The rest of the curves are from The University
,/ ~
160 I o 0.45 g/ccm, at 5300/s
k/ ~
J~ /
I / - 4 - - ~ 1 7 6 . . . . . 14500/, I I
/. . . . 01540~. . . . . t4600 is ]" ]
~2o ~---'*--
- -~ - 1 -7 6 i
-g
80
03
40
~2 ~ , ~ _ . . ' ~ ~ _~-z~ - ~ _ ~ ,-.,,,
1 o ....... I ' I ' I ' I
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Strain
Fig. 10--Effects of mass density on the dynamic compressive
s t r e s s - s t r a i n b e h a v i o r of t h e p o l y u r e t h a n e f o a m at a strain
rates of ~5000/s.
of Arizona. The compressive stress-strain curves shown in
Fig. 11 possess very similar characteristics to the dynamic
curves in Figs. 9 and 10. However, the stress level is much
lower under quasi-static loading conditions. The first peaks
on the curves shown in Fig. 11 are at stress levels of ~0.2 MPa
for the 78-kg/m 3-density foam, ~ 1.6 MPa for the 154-kg/m 3-
density foam, ~6.4 MPa for the 299-kg/m 3-density foam, and
~14 MPa for the 445-kg/m3-density foam. Although they
nearly obey the square-of-density-ratio rule, these strength
values are only ~50% of the corresponding dynamic values.
This rate dependence of the foam comes from two sources4
although the quantitative measures of the contributions from
the sources cannot be precisely determined. Firstly, the foam
inherits the strain-rate dependence of the solid polyurethane
of the cell walls. Chen and Z h o u 33 have found that the dy-
namic compressive strength of a solid epoxy depended on the
strain rate as the rate was increased from quasi-static range to
(1) SHPB range, but saturated within the SHPB range. This phe-
nomenon is very similar to the rate dependence of the foam
presented in this paper. The second contribution to the rate
dependence is from the compressibility of the air trapped
in the closed cells. To illustrate the rate dependence more
clearly, Fig. 12 presents the compressive stress strain curves
of the foam with 299-kg/m 3 density at quasi-static (10-4/s)
and dynamic (4.3 x 103/s) strain rates.
Conclusions
A split Hopkinson pressure bar has been modified to per-
form dynamic compressive experiments on low-impedance
materials such as polymeric foams. To ensure valid experi-
mental results, piezoelectric force transducers were mounted
near the specimen end faces, which measured and compared
the axial force histories at both ends of the foam specimen.
Pulse-shapers were used to facilitate the dynamic force equi-
librium and to maintain a constant strain rate during an ex-
periment. This modified technique was used to determine the
dynamic compressive behavior of a rigid polyurethane foam
of four different densities. The dynamic stress-strain curves
for the foams of all densities show very similar shapes, which
Experimental Mechanics 9 71
TABLE 1--DYNAMIC ELASTIC COLLAPSE STRENGTH OF POLYURETHANE FOAM
Density (g/cm 3) 0.078 0.154 0.299* 0.445
ael predicted by Eq (1), MPa 0.92 3.58 13.5" 29.9
CSel measured, MPa 0.75 3.8 13.5" 30.0**
* Reference state.
**Strain-rate dependent.

2o o p o-o ~g,~/
Acknowledgments
I ~1=t54 Kg/m~
p =ZBKg/~~
l This work was supported by Applied Research Associates,
Albuquerque, NM, and Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia
is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation,
a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Depart-
~" 12
ment of Energy under Contract DE-ACO4-94AL8500.

8
8 References
l. Ashe, VKA., "Rigid Cellular Plastics in Automotive Applications,"
ASTM Standard News, 16 (10), 32-33 (1988).
2. Yu-Hallada, L.C., Kuczynski, E.T., and Weierstall, M., "Polyurethane:
,4- I I I [ I I ', I ~ '
The Material of Choice for Occupant Protection and Energy Management,"
in Proceedings of Polyurethanes 1995, Chicago, IL, Sept. 26-29, Society of
' I ' I ' i the Plastic Industry, 390-396 (1995).
0.2 0,4 0.~ 0.8 3. Weiser, E.S., Johnson, TE, Clair, T.L.S., Echigo, Y., Kaneshiro, H.,
Strain and Grimsley, B. W., "Polyimide Foams for Aerospace Vehicles," High Per-
formance Polymers, 12 (1), 1-12 (2000).
Fig. l 1--Quasi-static compressive stress-strain curves of 4. Gibson, L.J. and Ashby, M.E, Cellular Solids, Structure and Proper-
the polyurethane foam. ties, Second Edition, Cambridge (1999).
5. Kraynik, A.M., Neilsen, M.K., Reinelt, D.A., and Warren, W.E., "Foam
Micromechanics,'" in Foams and Emulsions, Eds., J.E Sadoc and N. River',
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands (1999).
6. Zhang, J., Kikuchi, N., Li, ~, Yee, A., and Nusholtz, G., "Constitutive
Modeling of Polymeric Foam Material Subjected to Dynamic Crash Load-
O ~ 0,0001/s ing," International Journal of lmpact Engineering, 21 (5), 369-386 (1998).
I ~z= 4300/s Z Kipp, M.E., Chhabildas, L.C., Reinhart, W.D., and Wong, M.K.,
"Polyurethane Foam Impact Experiments and Simulations," in APS Shock
16
Compression of Condensed Matter--1999, June 27-July 2, Snowbird, UT,
APS (1999).
8. Schumachel; W., "Polyurethane Foams to Improve Shock Absorption
and Assembly of New Bumper Systems," in Proceedings of Polyurethanes
World Congress 1987:50 Years of Polyurethanes, Aachen, Germany, Sept.
29-0ct. 2, Technomic Publishing Company, 248-251 (1987).
8 9. Sounik, D.E, Gansen, P., Clemons, J.L., and Liddle, J. W., "Head-
Impact Testing of Polyurethane Energy-Absorbing (EA ) Foams," SAE Trans-
actions: Journal of Materials & Manufacturing, 106 (5), 211-220 (1997).
4
10. Goods, S.H., Neuschwanger, C.L., Henderson, C.C., and Skala,
D.M., "Mechanical Properties of CRETE, a Polyurethane Foam," Journal
of Applied Polymer Science, 68 (7), 1045-1055 (1998).
11. Lanl~ord, J. and Dannemann, K.A., "Strain Rate Effects in Porous
0 ' t ' I ' I ' Materials," Porous and Cellular Materialsfor Structural Applications, Ma-
0,2 0.4 0.6 0,8 terials Research Society, Pittsburg, PA, 103-108 (1998).
Strain 12. Progelhof R.C., "Impact Measurement of Low-Pressure Thermo-
plastic Structural Foam," In Proceedings of Instrumented hnpact Testing
Fig. 12--Strain-rate effects o n t h e compressive stress-strain of Plastics and Composite Materials, Houston, TX, March 11-12, ASTM,
curves of a rigid, closed-cell polyurethane foam with a density 105 t16 (1986).
of 299 kg/m 3. 13. Chou, C.C., Zhao, Y., Lira, G.G., and G.S. Song, "'A Constitutive
Model for Polyurethane Foams with Strain-Rate and Temperature Effects,"
SAE Transactions: Journal of Materials & Manufacturing 107, 743-754
(1998).
14. Chen, W., Zhang, B., and Forrestal, M.J., "A Split Hopkinson Bar
are close to the shapes of quasi-static curves. There is an ini- Technique for Low-Impedance Materials," EXPERIMENTAL MECHANICS,
tial linear deformation (cell-wall bending) stage that leads 3 9 (2), 81-85 (1999).

to a peak point, followed by a nearly flat cell-wall collapse
region. Densification occurs at higher strains. For all spec-
imens with real foam structures, their stress-strain curves
obtained within the strain-rate range of 1000-5000/s are in-
sensitive to the strain rate before densification. However, the
dynamic stress levels are twice as much as the corresponding
quasi-static values. The stress level at the peak point obeys
the square of density ratio rule.
15. Chen, W., Lu, E, and Zhou, B., "A Quartz Crystal Imbedded Split
Hopkinson Bar for Soft Materials," EXPERIMENTAL MECHANICS, 40 (1),
I - 6 (2000;
16. Kurnes, C.H. and Ripperger, E.A., "'Strain Rate Effects in Cold
Worked High-Purity Aluminum," Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of
Solids, 14, 75-88 (1966).
17. Wasley, R.J., Hoge, K.G., and Cast, J.C., "Combined Strain Gauge-
Quartz Crystal Instrumented Hopkinson Split Bar,'" The Review of Scientific
Instruments, 40, 889-894 (1969).

72 9 Vo/. 42, No. 1, March 2002

 18. Togami, T.C., Baker, W.E., and Forrestal, M.J., "'A Split Hopkinson
Bar Technique to Evaluate the Performance of Accelerometers," Transaction
of the ASME, Journal of Applied Mechanics, 63, 353-356 (1996).
19. Valpey-Fisher, The User's Guide to Ultrasound & Optical Products,
Valpey-Fisher, Hopkinton, MA (1996).
20. Duffy, jr., Campbell, ,I.D., and Hawley, R.H., "On the Use of Tor-
sional Hopkinson Bar to Study Rate Effects in 1100-0 Aluminum," Journal
of Applied Mechanics, 38, 83-91 (1971).
21. Ravichandran, G. and Chen, W, "Dynamic Behavior of Brittle Ma-
terials Under Uniaxial Compression," in Experiments in Micromechanics of
Fracture Resistant Materials, Ed., K. S. Kim, AMD-130, ASME, New York,
85-90 (1991).
22. Nemat-Nasser, S., Isaacs, J.B., and Starrett, J.E., "Hopkinson Tech-
niques for Dynamic Recovery Experiments," Proceedings of the Royal So-
ciety of London A435, 371-391 (1991).
23. Kolsky, H., "An Investigation of Mechanical Properties of Materi-
als at Very High Rates of Loading," Proceedings of the Physics Society of
London, Series B, 62, 676-700 (1949).
24. Lindholm, U.S., "Some Experiments with the Split Hopkinson Pres-
sure Bar," Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 12, 317-335 (1964).
25. Follansbee, P.S. and Frantz, C., "Wave Propagation in the SHPB,"
J. Eng. Mater. Technol. (Trans. ASME), 105, 61-66 (1983).
26. Gray, G.T., 111,Blumenthal, W.R., Trujillo, C.P, and Carpenter, R. W.,
II, "Influence of Temperature and Strain Rate on the Mechanical Behavior
of Adiprene L-IO0," Journal de Physique IV France Colloq. C3 (DYMAT
97), 7, 523-528 (1997).
27. Wu, X.J. and Gorham, D.A., "Stress Equilibrium in the Split Hopkin-
son Pressure Bar Test," Journal de Physique IV France Colloq. C3 (DYMAT
97), 7, 91-96 (1997).
28. Gong, J.C., Malvern, L.E., and Jenkins, D.A., "Dispersion Investi-
gation in the Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar," Jr.Eng. Mater. Technol. (Trans.
ASME), 112, 309-314 (1990).
29. Gary, G., Klepaczko, J.R., and Zhao, H., "Corrections for Wave
Dispersion and and Analysis of Small Strains with Split Hopkinson Bar,"
Proceedings of the International Symposium of lmpact Engineering, Sendai,
Japan, 73-78 (1992).
30. Lifshitz, J.M. and Leber, H., "Data Processing in the Split Hopkinson
Pressure Bar Tests," lnt. J. lmpact Engng., 15 (6), 723-733 (1994).
31. Sawas, 0., Brar, N.S, and Brockman, R.A., "Dynamic Characteriza-
tion of Compliant Materials Using an All-polymeric Split Hopkinson Bar,"
EXPERIMENTAL MECHANICS, 38 (3), 204-210 (1998).
32. Bacon, C., "An Experimental Method for Considering Dispersion
and Attenuation in a Viscoelastic Hopkinson Bar," EXPERIMENTAL ME-
CHANICS, 38 (4), 242-249 (1998).
33. Chen, W. and Zhou, B., "Constitutive Behavior of Epon 828/7-403 at
Various Strain Rates," Mechanics of Time-Dependent Materials, 2, 103-111
(1998).
Experimental Mechanics 9 73