Computational Modelling of Nanoporous Materials

Recently proposed constitutive models that describe the mechanical behavior of open-porous cellular materials take into account the random pore sizes of the materials but not the randomness in the pore shapes [1]. In the present contribution, a computational model to reconstruct the highly irregular structure of porous materials is developed using sphere packing and Laguerre-Voronoi tessellation [2]. The mechanical structure-property relationship is then investigated by means of finite element methods. Under compression, porous materials demonstrate linear-elastic behaviour followed by an irreversible deformation resulting in a plateau region followed by densification [3]. In this contribution, such mechanical responses of porous materials under cyclic loading are investigated using elasto-plastic material models. Furthermore, effects of tensile loading on the model are also discussed.