Materials Science and Engineering A 477 (2008) 168–178

Effects of strain rate and density on tensile behavior of polypropylene

syntactic foam with polymer microballoons
Hiroyuki Mae a,∗ , Masaki Omiya b , Kikuo Kishimoto c
aHonda R&D Co. Ltd., 4630 Shimotakanezawa, Haga-machi, Haga-gun, Tochigi 321-3393, Japan
b Department of Mechanical and Control Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 O-okayama, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan
c Department of Mechanical and Sciences Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 O-okayama, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan

Received 24 February 2007; received in revised form 2 May 2007; accepted 9 May 2007

Abstract
The objective is to characterize the effects of local strain rate and density on the mechanical properties of the thermoplastic syntactic foams
at the intermediate and high strain rates. Tensile tests are conducted at the nominal strain rates from 10−1 to 102 s−1 . Finite element analyses are
conducted on the microstructural models to estimate the local strain rate. When the local strain rates are considered, the relative elastic moduli
are classified into two groups by the nominal strain rates below 10 and above 50 s−1 . This is because the matrix material at the cell edge is rubber
phase leading to small local bending stiffness at the nominal strain rate below 10 s−1 . At the nominal strain rate above 50 s−1 , the relative elastic
moduli can follow the equation proposed by Gibson and Ashby, while the relative yield stress is plotted in one group, leading to follow Gibson
and Ashby law.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Polymer; Tensile behavior; Strain rate; Density; Relative elastic modulus; Relative yield stress; Microballoon; Syntactic foams; Closed cell; Cellular
microstructure; Finite element

1. Introduction as structural components [1,2]. For more detailed introduction

In many important automotive applications, the lighter but
safer structures are needed for economy, environment and func-
tionality. As a result, aluminum alloys and fiber reinforced
plastics are increasingly used in load-carrying structures and
safety components of automotives, so that the weight of automo-
tive is reduced and thus the energy consumption and emissions
to the environment are brought down.
The same concern is being applied to the interior and exterior
automotive parts such as instrument panels, interior door pan-
els and bumper faces. Syntactic polymer foams are being used
to replace the traditional polymer bulk components for weight
reduction. Syntactic polymer foams are composite materials
consisting of spherical particles which are dispersed in a matrix
polymer material. The spherical particles are usually called
microballoons and microspheres. The most widely used syntac-
tic foams are thermosetting polymers with glass microballoons
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 28 677 3311; fax: +81 28 677 7500.
E-mail address: Hiroyuki Mae@n.t.rd.honda.co.jp (H. Mae).
to the syntactic foams, see Shutov [3], Lawrence and Pyrz [4]
and Whinnery et al. [5].
In the automotive applications, the thermoplastic polymer
syntactic foams are believed to have many advantages because
the usual commercial extruders or injection molding machines
are applicable for producing them. The studies about mechani-
cal properties of thermoplastic polymer syntactic foams are very
few. According to the limited number of literatures describing
their mechanical properties, Lawrence et al. [4] determined and
compared the viscoplastic properties of polyethylene syntactic
foams made from polyethylene and approximately 40 vol% of
polymer microballoons. However, the mechanical properties at
the intermediate and high strain rates are not understood com-
prehensively. The literature about the effect of strain rate on the
mechanical properties of thermoplastic polymer syntactic foams
is limited to the macroscopic strain rate effect on the compres-
sive mechanical properties [6–8]. It is expected that the local
strain rate in the heterogeneous microstructure is not uniform.
Therefore, it is necessary to study if the polymer syntactic foams
can be evaluated by macroscopic strain rates such as aluminum
foams because polymer shows the strong strain rate dependency.

0921-5093/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2007.05.028
 H. Mae et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 477 (2008) 168–178 169

Fig. 1. SEM observation of microballoon blended polypropylene.

Those properties are important to design and use them for auto- both relative elastic modulus and relative yield stress are dis-
motive application, especially for impact energy absorbers as cussed.
well as weight reduction.
Therefore, the objective of this study is to measure and char- 2. Experiments
acterize the local strain rate effect on the mechanical properties
of the thermoplastic syntactic foams at the intermediate and high 2.1. Materials
strain rates. The syntactic foam in this study consists of elasti-
cally deformable microballoons in a polypropylene matrix. The The elastomer-blended polypropylene where ethylene propy-
microballoons expand during the manufacturing process such lene rubber (EPR) is blended at 30 wt% was used as a matrix
as injection molding because the liquid isobutene is inside the material. The microballoon is Expancel grade 092-120 (Akzo
microballoon and it thermally expands during manufacturing Nobel). The material of microballoon shell is made of poly-
process. Four kinds of syntactic foams and one polypropylene methyl methacrylate (PMMA). The microballoon was mixed
bulk specimens are prepared at same manufacturing process: with the pellet of matrix polypropylene at dry condition. Then,
0, 20, 30, 40 and 50 vol% of microballoons in the polypropy- the mixed pellet was melted and injected into the molder.
lene matrix. Tensile tests are conducted at strain rates ranged
from 10−1 to 102 s−1 . Elastic modulus, yield stress and rup- Table 1
ture strain are measured and the effects of microballoons on Detail of materials
the mechanical properties are studied. In addition, fracture sur- Name Blend ratio (vol%) Diameter of microballoon (nm)
faces are observed with ESEM (environmental scanning electron
Polypropylene Microballoon Minimum Mean Maximum
microscopy) and the changes of fracture mode due to the volume
percentage of microballoons are discussed. Moreover, finite ele- 120A 100 0 – – –
ment analyses are also conducted to characterize the distribution 120B 80 20 5.43 47.37 115.98
120C 70 30 14.77 61.56 140.80
of local strain rates in syntactic foams. Finally, experimen-
120D 60 40 28.97 74.35 126.91
tal results are compared with analytical model for closed-cell 120E 50 50 30.57 76.50 187.82
foam and the effects of the local strain rate and density on
170 H. Mae et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 477 (2008) 168–178

Fig. 2. ASTM tensile test specimen.

The injecting temperature was kept at 200 ◦ C during manu-

facturing process. The processing temperature and injecting
pressure are kept constant for every type of microballoon blend
polypropylene and the neat polypropylene. The microstructures
of those materials were observed with SEM (scanning electron
microscopy) before tensile loading by cutting the specimen by
diamond cutter after cooling enough. The volume ratio of mir-
coballoon to the matrix and the range of the diameters of the
microballoon are shown in Table 1. As the volume fraction
of microballooon becomes larger, those microballoons easily
expand because the volume of matrix decreases at the higher
blend fraction as shown in Fig. 1.

2.2. Tensile test specimen

ASTM dumbbell shape (parallel portion width 4.8 mm) micro

tensile test specimens are used for measuring the strain rate
dependent stress strain relationship (ASTM D1708). Fig. 2
shows the shape of the test specimen. The thickness of test
specimen is 3.0 mm. Each polypropylene with microballoon is
injected into the same shape of molder as the test specimen. The
injecting direction is parallel to the axial direction of the test
specimen.

2.3. Test apparatus and method

This study uses a servo-hydraulic high-speed impact test

apparatus (Shimazu EHF U2H-20L: maximum tensile speed
1.5 × 101 m/s) to obtain mechanical characteristics under
medium to high-speed deformation. Strain rate is the nominal
Fig. 4. (a) Nominal stress and nominal strain curves of 120A at various nominal
strain rates, (b) nominal stress and nominal strain curves of 120B at various
nominal strain rates and (c) nominal stress and nominal strain curves of 120E at
various nominal strain rates.

value calculated by the initial clamping distance of the test spec-

imen which is 22.2 mm. The nominal strain rate ranges from
10−1 to 102 s−1 . After tensile tests, the fracture surfaces are
observed with ESEM (FEI Quanta 200F field emission environ-
mental SEM) to identify the fracture mechanism in each strain
rate and at each volume percentage of microballoon.

2.4. Numerical simulation

For the numerical simulation, the elastic plastic constitutive

Fig. 3. Finite element model of cross section before tensile test (120B).
law in which the experimentally obtained stress strain curves
at each strain rate is tabulated is used to estimate the local
strain rate distribution which is expected to change accord-
ing to the microstructure. The two dimensional simulation is
conducted in the microstructural finite element (FE) models of
 H. Mae et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 477 (2008) 168–178 171

Fig. 5. Elastic modulus vs. relative density at various nominal strain rates. Fig. 6. Yield stress vs. relative density at various nominal strain rates.

test specimens; 120A, 120B, 120C, 120D and 120E. Based on

stress oscillation obtained by the present tensile test apparatus
the SEM pictures taken on the cross section before the tensile
[10].
test as shown in Fig. 1, two-dimensional plane strain models
Fig. 5 shows the relationship between the elastic modulus
were made by using OOF software [9]. The FE mesh model
and the relative density. The densities are normalized by that of
and boundary condition of 120B are shown in Fig. 3. The one-
120A which is neat polypropylene. Tensile tests under each con-
quarter symmetrical boundary condition was assumed in all FE
dition are conducted three times. The mean values calculated by
models.
three measurement data are plotted in Fig. 5. As shown clearly,
The tensile velocities were 0.075, 0.75 and 7.5 m/s which
the elastic modulus decreases drastically once the microballoon
correspond to the nominal strain rate of 1, 10 and 100 s−1 in the
is blended. In addition, the elastic moduli for high strain rates
tensile tests, respectively. All FE simulations were performed by
are larger than those of low strain rates at every relative den-
the commercial explicit finite element code RADIOSS Version
sity. Especially, the elastic modulus increases drastically in the
4.4.
neat polypropylene between the strain rates of 10 and 50 s−1 ),
compared to the rest of the specimens. It is considered that the
3. Results matrix material would show the ductile brittle transition at the
strain rate from 10 to 50 s−1 .
3.1. Experimental results Fig. 6 shows the relationship between the yield stress and
the relative density. The yielding of polymeric materials is very
Fig. 4 shows the nominal stress strain curves of the complex. There is a possibility to happen local damages such as
microballoon-blended specimens (120A, 120B and 120E) at var- polymer chain scission, micro crazing and so on, even in elastic
ious nominal strain rates. The strong strain rate dependency is region on the stress–strain curve. Therefore, from a macroscopic
observed in all specimens. The flow stress increases as the strain view point, the yield stress was defined as the maximum nom-
rate goes up in all type of specimen. Rupture strain decreases inal stress in the stress–strain curve except for the cases when
drastically as the strain rate increases in all the microballoon- the stress oscillation occurred such as the nominal strain rates
blended polypropylene. As shown in Fig. 4(c), the strong stress of 100 s−1 in 120A and 120B specimens. In the same man-
softening at the failure is observed at the strain rate of 0.3 s−1 in ner as Fig. 5, the yield stress decreases drastically once the
the specimen 120E while the abrupt stress reduction is measured microballoons are blended.
at the strain rate of 1, 10 and 100 s−1 . Inter-particle distances are
so small that the stress state in the ligament between microbal-
loons would be in plane stress condition at the strain rate of
0.3 s−1 . This stress state reduces the stress triaxiality and induces
ductile failure.
In Fig. 4(a) and (b), the stress oscillation was observed. In
these two cases, the yield stress was approximately estimated
between the maximum and minimum stresses at the first stress
oscillation as plotted by black color dots in Fig. 4(a) and (b).
One of the authors evaluated this approximation method by
comparing the present tensile test apparatus and more rigid ten-
sile test apparatus with the elastomer blended polypropylene.
The results showed that the initial stiffness of the test speci-
men was almost same between the two tensile test apparatuses.
The yield stress obtained by the rigid tensile test appara- Fig. 7. Logarithmic rupture strain to fracture vs. relative density at various
tus was approximately same as the average value of the first nominal strain rates.
172 H. Mae et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 477 (2008) 168–178
Fig. 7 shows the logarithmic rupture strain plotted with the
relative density. It is observed that the materials lose the ductil-
ity once the microballoon is blended. However, the decrease of
material’s ductility saturates below the relative density of 0.7.
It is considered that the distances between microballoons are
so small that the ligament of the matrix would be in the plane
stress state. Hence, the fracture mechanism could shift from the
plane strain to the plane stress state below the relative density
of 0.7.
Fig. 8 shows the pictures of the fracture surfaces at the
nominal strain rates of 0.3 and 100 s−1 in 120A and 120E,
respectively. In the neat polypropylene (120A), fracture surface
shows that the ductile fracture at the strain rate of 0.3 s−1 while
the fracture pattern changes to the brittle state at the strain rate of
100 s−1 . The microballoon-blended polypropylene (120E) also
show the ductile fracture in the matrix and the microballoon
shell was elongated to the loading direction at the strain rates
of 0.3 s−1 . The matrix shows the brittle fracture pattern at the
strain rate of 100 s−1 , while the microballoon shell breaks at the
equatorial plane.
Fig. 8. ESEM picture of fracture surface at strain rates of 0.3 and 100 s−1 .
3.2. Numerical results
Fig. 9 shows the simulated equivalent strain distribution at the
nominal strain rate of 10 s−1 , where the nominal strain is 0.005.
It is observed that the area of strain localization for the high
relative density is larger, compared to that for the low relative
density.
Fig. 10 shows the histogram of local strain rate distribution
in all specimens at the nominal strain rate of 10 s−1 . Table 2
summarizes the mean and standard deviation of local strain rate
distribution in all specimens at the nominal strain rates of 1,
10 and 100 s−1 . As shown clearly, the mean local strain rate is
much smaller than the nominal strain rate. It is considered that
the microstructural elongation is smaller than the macroscopic
elongation because the main deformation mechanism is rota-
tion instead of elongation. The larger the volume percentage
of microbaloons is blended, the smaller the mean local strain
rate is obtained. Based on the standard deviation of the local
strain rate, 120E shows broader local strain rate distribution than
that of 120B. This is because the inter-particle distance of 120E
H. Mae et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 477 (2008) 168–178 173

Fig. 9. Equivalent strain distribution at nominal strain rate of 10 s−1 .

Fig. 10. Histogram of local strain rate at nominal strain rate of 10 s−1 .
174 H. Mae et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 477 (2008) 168–178

Table 2
Mean and standard deviation of local strain rate distribution
Name Nominal Mean Standard deviation
strain rate strain rate of strain rate
120B 1 0.182 0.262
10 1.746 2.362
100 18.110 20.212
120C 1 0.165 0.170
10 1.566 1.652
100 16.177 15.336
120D 1 0.056 0.105
10 0.526 0.990
100 5.542 9.764 Fig. 11. Elastic modulus vs. nominal strain rate of 120A specimen.
120E 1 0.019 0.045
10 0.177 0.435 rate is same as the global nominal strain rate, which means that
100 1.946 4.421 Esolid of 120A is same as that of 120B for example. The analyt-
ical model for closed-cell foams is modeled by considering the
mechanisms by which the cell deform and fail in Refs. [11–13].
is so small that the deformation mechanism of the ligament is The following equation for elastic modulus has a linear den-
mainly rotation instead of elongation. This deformation mecha- sity term, related to face stretching, as well as the squared term,
nism makes the local strain rate small and broad. On the contrary, related to cell edge bending:
the strain is localized on the ligament of 120B, which leads to  2
the small distribution of the local strain rate. From a unit cell E ρ ρ
≈ φ2 + (1 − φ) , (1)
analysis, the mean local strain rate in three-dimensional model Esolid ρsolid ρsolid
was smaller than that of two-dimensional plane strain model. As
where E is the elastic modulus of the foam material, Esolid the
a result, it is expected that the present FE results might be larger
elastic modulus of the matrix, φ the volume fraction of cell edges
than the actual mean local strain rate. However, it is expected
in a unit volume, ρ the density of the foam material and ρsolid
that the microstructural deformation mechanisms, such as elon-
is the density of the matrix. Eq. (1) is used for the material
gations and rotations, can be simulated even in two-dimensional
which consists of holes and edge of the matrix. In this study, the
models. Therefore, the experimental results were analyzed with
the two-dimensional FE results for simplicity.
Based on FE analyses, the relationship between the relative
mean local strain rate and the relative density is approximated
as ε̇local /ε̇nominal = 0.88(ρ/ρsolid )5.45 . It is found that the mean
local strain rate can be estimated by the nominal strain rate at
various relative densities from the equation in this study.

4. Discussion

4.1. Relative elastic modulus and relative yield stress

120A is neat polypropylene and this corresponds to the matrix

material for the other specimens. The elastic moduli and yield Fig. 12. Yield stress vs. nominal strain rate of 120A specimen.
stresses for 120A are summarized in Figs. 11 and 12 for further
discussion. Fig. 11 shows the elastic modulus plotted against the
strain rate in the neat polypropylene. As shown clearly, the elastic
modulus drastically increases at the strain rate ranging from 10
to 50 s−1 . Fig. 12 shows that the yield stress plotted against the
strain rate in the neat polypropylene. The yield stress increases
gradually as the strain rate increases. On the contrary to elastic
modulus, the yield stress does not show the prominent transition
point in the strain rate ranged in the current experiment.
Fig. 13 shows the relative elastic modulus plotted against rel-
ative density in all type of specimens. In this plot, it is assumed
that the elastic moduli of the matrix (Esolid ) in the microballoon-
blended polypropylene are same as those of the specimen (120A)
as shown in Fig. 11. In addition, it is assumed that the local strain Fig. 13. Relative elastic modulus vs. relative density.
 H. Mae et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 477 (2008) 168–178 175

Fig. 14. SEM pictures of cross-section at low magnification.

microballoon-blended polypropylene has three phases which are ing instead of compression. Therefore, the effect of the cell wall
hole, microballoon’s shell and matrix (polypropylene). Thus, curvature and corrugations on the elastic modulus would not
it is necessary to investigate the effect of the stiffness of the be prominent in this study. Another possible reason for that is
microballoon’s shell on that of the matrix so as to check if Eq. the effect of matrix density gradient on the elastic modulus.
(1) would be applicable in the material tested in this study. When Beals and Thompson [18] show that the effect of the density
it is assumed that all blended microballoon is completely spher- gradient on the compression properties of aluminum foam is
ical shape, it is estimated that the volume percentage of the significant. Fig. 14 shows the SEM pictures of the cross sec-
microballoon shell is only about 0.14% at the relative density tion of the specimens at low magnification. As shown clearly,
of 0.5. Note that the elastic modulus of microballoon shell is the blended microballoons are spherical shape in the center part
approximated as 2 GPa. Based on the mixing rule, the effect although they are compressed elliptical shape in the outer part.
of the elastic modulus of microballoon shell on the macroscopic This is because the thermoplastic microballoons were deformed
elastic modulus in the current syntactic foam is negligible. Thus,
it can be assumed that the microballoon-blended polypropylene
consists of the holes and the matrix for simple calculation in this
analysis.
From Eq. (1), the upper bound and lower bound of the relative
elastic modulus can be drawn in Fig. 13 by changing φ. Com-
pared with these analytical results, experimental results show
much smaller relative elastic moduli, although the slopes of
experimental data sets seem to be between the slopes of upper
and lower bound curves. Simone and Gibson [14–17] have dis-
cussed the effect of cell wall curvature and corrugations on the
compressive elastic modulus. They used the metallic aluminum
foams with a low relative density (ρ/ρsolid < 0.15). On the con-
trary to their study, the relative density in this study rages from
0.5 to 0.8 and elastic modulus was obtained by pure tensile test- Fig. 15. Relative yield stress vs. relative density.
176 H. Mae et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 477 (2008) 168–178

by the shear loading between the flowing polypropylene and the

wall of the molder during injection processing. However, the
effect of the density gradient on the elastic modulus would not
be large in this study because the image analysis showed that
the area fraction of microballoon was almost same between the
center and outer parts of the specimen.
The local strain rate effect is the most possible reason why the
experimental results are much smaller than the analytical results.
The local strain rate is much smaller than the global nominal
strain rate as shown in Section 3.2. In Fig. 13, elastic moduli of
the matrix, Esolid , are obtained from Fig. 11 and the local strain
rate effects are not considered, which means that the local strain
rate is uniform in the matrix and it is same as the global nominal
strain rate. Therefore, the relative elastic modulus should be re- Fig. 16. Relative elastic modulus vs. relative density.
plotted with the effect of local strain rates. The detail will be
discussed in Section 4.2. have some effect on the relative elastic modulus. The analyti-
Fig. 15 shows the relative yield stress plotted against rela- cal equation proposed by Gibson and Ashby has been derived
tive density in all type of specimens. In this plot, it is assumed under linear elastic assumption [11–13]. However, as seen in
that the yield stresses of the matrix (σ ysolid ) in the microbal- stress–strain curves in Fig. 4, the relations between stress and
loon blended polypropylene are same as those of the specimen strain shows nonlinear in elastic region under the nominal strain
(120A) where no microballoons are blended, which means that rate below 10 s−1 . This is because the matrix material at the
the local strain rate is uniform and it is same as the global nomi- cell edge is rubber phase leading to small local bending stiff-
nal strain rate. The yield stress of a closed-cell foam is described ness at the nominal strain rate below 10 s−1 . On the contrary,
as the following equation [10]: the material of the cell edge is glass phase at the nominal strain
 3/2 rate above 50 s−1 , which shows the same deformation mecha-
σy ρ ρ nism as the foam following Gibson and Ashby law. The present
≈ 0.3 φ + 0.4(1 − φ) , (2)
σysolid ρsolid ρsolid experimental results indicate a need of more detailed study to
examine the effect of the viscoelastic properties of the matrix
where σ y is the yield stress of the foam material, and σ ysolid material.
is the yield stress of the matrix material. The first term in Eq. As references, the experimental results of the microballoon
(2) denotes the plastic bending of cell edges, and the second blended polypropylene at the relative density ranging at 0.90,
term the plastic stretching of the cell faces. The experimental 0.92, 0.96, 0.98 and 0.99 are added to Fig. 16 in Fig. 17. These
data points are larger than the analytical values. However, the high relative density materials were manufactured at the differ-
slope of experimental data set seems to be between the analytical ent lot from the current microballoon blended polypropylene
slopes as shown in Fig. 15. although the same pellet was used for the matrix polypropylene.
As shown clearly, the relative elastic moduli drastically increase
4.2. Local strain rate effect and approach to 1 over ρ/ρsolid = 0.9. The relative elastic moduli
at the nominal strain rates of 50 and 100 s−1 follow the equation
For considering the effect of the local strain rate on the elas- proposed by Gibson and Ashby [11–13], while those at the strain
tic modulus and the yield stress of the matrix, the mean local rate below 10 do not follow Gibson and Ashby law. It is shown
strain rate was obtained by FE analysis as described in Section that the slopes at all the strain rates are almost same at the rel-
3.2. Then, Esolid and σ ysolid of 120A were estimated based on
the experimental data of E and σ y in 120A, which are strain
rate dependent. Finally, the relative elastic moduli are plotted
against the relative density in Fig. 16. The relative elastic mod-
uli increase because the local strain rate decreases, which means
that the elastic modulus of the PP matrix decreases. The experi-
mental results are classified into two groups. The relative elastic
moduli increase drastically as the nominal strain rate increases
from 10 to 50 s−1 in every relative density. The relative elastic
moduli of the nominal strain rates of 50 and 100 s−1 follow
the equation proposed by Gibson and Ashby although those
of the nominal strain rate below 10 s−1 does not. Mukai et al.
observe the strain rate effect in the compressive test of a closed-
sell aluminum foam [19]. Their experimental results show the
stress increases as the nominal strain rate goes up. It is consid- Fig. 17. Relative elastic modulus vs. relative density with the reference experi-
ered that the viscoelastic behavior of the matrix material should mental data.
 H. Mae et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 477 (2008) 168–178
Fig. 18. Relative yield stress plotted against relative density.
ative density smaller than 0.9. This means that the deformation
mechanisms are the cell edge bending and cell face stretching
at all strain rates. At the relative density above 0.9, it seems
that the equation by Gibson and Ashby cannot catch up with
the present experimental results. These results indicate that the
deformation mechanism change at the relative density above
0.9 and the assumption of the foam material is not applicable at
these relative densities. Thus, the specimen should be treated as
a solid with isolated pores and the limitation of the foam material
assumption is ρ/ρsolid = 0.9 in this study.
Fig. 18 shows the relative yield stress re-plotted against as the
relative density based on the simulated local strain rate. In addi-
tion, the reference experimental data is added to Fig. 18 as shown
in Fig. 19. On the contrary to Fig. 17, the relative yield stresses
increase because the local strain rate decreases, which means
that the yield stress of the PP matrix decreases. In addition, the
relative yield stress indicates one data group while they can be
plotted by Eq. (2), which means that the relative yield stress can
be treated as the foam which follows Gibson and Ashby law
[11–13]. This is because the yield stress of the matrix material
does not have strong strain rate dependency compared to the
elastic modulus, as shown in Figs. 11 and 12. Additionally, in
the same manner as the relative elastic moduli, the relative yield
stress increases drastically at the relative density above 0.9. It is
also considered that the Eq. (2) cannot follow the relative yield
Fig. 19. Relative yield stress vs. relative density with the reference experimental
data.
177
stress at those relative density ranges. These results also indicate
that the deformation mechanism change at the relative density
above 0.9. Thus, the limitation of the foam material assumption
is ρ/ρsolid = 0.9 in this study.
In the above discussions, all the FE simulations were con-
ducted on the two-dimensional plane strain models. Of course,
above results can be improved more accurately by three-
dimensional FE simulation. This is future improvement of this
study.
5. Conclusions
The effects of local strain rate and density on the mechan-
ical properties of the microballoon blended polypropylene at
the intermediate and high strain rates were characterized. The
followings are the conclusion of this study:
1. The elastic modulus, yield stress and rupture strain are found
to be strongly dependent on the strain rate and density. They
decrease drastically at the relative density below 0.9.
2. From the results of finite element analyses, the magnitude of
the local strain rate is much smaller than that of the macro-
scopic strain rate. These are due to the elongation and rotation
of cell wall curvature and corrugation. The local strain rate
is distributed widely and is slower as the relative density
is smaller. These results indicate that the local strain rate
is strongly influenced by both viscoelastic properties of the
matrix and heterogeneous microstructures.
3. When the local strain rates are considered, the relative elastic
moduli are classified into two groups. Moreover, the relative
elastic moduli at the nominal strain rates of 50 and 100 s−1
follow the equation proposed by Gibson and Ashby, while
the relative elastic moduli at the nominal strain rates below
10 s−1 are much smaller than the analytical results. This is
because the matrix material at the rubber phase leading to
the nonlinear behavior of cell edge bending and cell face
stretching under the nominal strain rate below 10 s−1 . These
results indicate that, for polymer based syntactic foam, the
relative elastic moduli should be considered with the local
strain rate, leading not to treat it as the foam following Ashby
and Gibson law.
4. The relative elastic moduli increase drastically at the relative
density raged from 0.9 to 1.0, leading not to follow the equa-
tion of Gibson and Ashby. This is because the deformation
mechanism change at the relative density above 0.9 and the
assumption of the foam material is not applicable in these
relative densities. The specimen should be treated as a solid
with isolated pores in those relative densities. Thus, the limi-
tation of the foam material assumption is ρ/ρsolid = 0.9 in this
study.
5. On the contrary to relative elastic modulus, the relative
yield stress is plotted in one group. The relative yield stress
increases drastically at the relative density ranged from 0.9
to 1.0, leading not to follow the equation proposed by Gib-
son and Ashby. These results also indicate the change of the
deformation mechanism at the relative density above 0.9 and
the assumption of the foam material is not applicable in these
178 H. Mae et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 477 (2008) 168–178
relative densities. Thus, the limitation of the foam material
assumption is ρ/ρsolid = 0.9 in this study.
The polymer based syntactic foam has an advantage in
light weight, high energy absorbability, low cost and good
productivity for the applications not only in automobile but
also in any other field, such as airplane, mobile comput-
ers, packaging and so on. Therefore, more detailed studied
are encouraged. Especially, the relations between viscoelastic
properties of the matrix material and global mechanical behav-
iors in such heterogeneous microstructures are left as future
works.
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