• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2015

Ceramic foams are prepared as positive images corresponding to a plastic foam structure which exhibits high porosities (85-90%). This structure makes the ceramic foams attractive as a catalyst in a dry reforming process, because it could reduce a high pressure drop problem. This problem causes low mass and heat transfers in the process. Furthermore, the reactants would shortly contact to catalyst surface, thus low conversion could occur. Therefore, this research addressed the preparation of dry reforming catalysts using a sol-gel catalyst preparation via a polymeric sponge method. The specific objectives of this work are to investigate the effects of polymer foam structure (such as porosity, pore sizes, and cell characteristics) on a catalyst performance and to observe the influences of catalyst preparation parameters to yield a replica of the original structure of polymeric foam. To accomplish these objectives industrial waste foams, polyurethane (PU) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) foams, were used as a polymeric template. Results indicated that the porosity of the polyurethane and polyvinyl alcohol foams were about 99% and 97%. Their average cell sizes were approximate 200 and 50 micrometres, respectively. The cell characteristics of polymer foams exhibited the character of a high permeability material that can be able to dip with ceramic slurry, which was synthesized with various viscosities, during a catalyst preparation step. Next, morphology of ceramic foams was explored using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and catalyst properties, such as; temperature profile of catalyst reduction, metal dispersion, and surface area, were also characterized by $H_2-TPR$ and $H_2-TPD$ techniques, and BET, respectively. From the results, it was found that metal-particle dispersion was relatively high about 5.89%, whereas the surface area of ceramic foam catalysts was $64.52m^2/g$. Finally, the catalytic behaviour toward hydrogen production through the dry reforming of methane using a fixed-bed reactor was evaluated under certain operating conditions. The approaches from this research provide a direction for further improvement of marketable environmental friendly catalyst production.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.495-502
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• 2014

Glass-reinforced polyurethane foam (R-PUF) is widely used as the primary and secondary insulation of Mark-III type liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo system. And, polyurethane foam (PUF) and polyisocyanurate foam (PIR) are often used for insulation of onshore structures or LNG storage and pipeline system. These polymeric foam materials are known for the characteristics that mechanical properties are dependent on strain rate and temperature. In this study, compression tests for R-PUF, PIR, and PUF were carried out for the estimation of mechanical behaviors under the cryogenic environment. The range of thermal condition was from room temperature to 110K and strain rates were $10^{-3}s^{-1}$ and $10^{-4}s^{-1}$. The test results were analyzed based on the conditions of strain-rate and temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.194-197
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• 2004

In this paper, compressive characteristics of carbon fabric skin with polymeric foam core sandwich structure were investigated by FE analyses and compressive tests of polyurethane foam were also conducted with respect to temperature changes, which were determined by curing processes of epoxy or polyester resin to obtain mechanical behaviour of polyurethane foam. FE analyses indicated variation of parameters with respect to manufacturing pressure, which have comparatively massive effect upon mechanical properties of sandwich structures, i.e. wavelength as well as crimp angle of carbon fabric

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.191-197
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• 2018

This paper details the development of an isotropic elastic-damage constitutive model for polymeric foam based on irreversible thermodynamics to consider the growth and coalescence of voids. The constitutive equations describe the material behavior sustaining unilateral damage. To facilitate finite element analysis, the material properties for specific types of polymeric foams are applied to the developed model; the model is then implemented in ABAQUS as a user-defined material subroutine. To validate the developed damage model, the simulated results are compared to the results of a series of tensile tests on various polymeric foams. The proposed damage model can be utilized to further research on continuum damage mechanics and finite element analysis of polymeric foams in computational engineering.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.731-736
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• 1999

The polyol was synthesized from soybean oil. Soybean oil was epoxized with peracetic acid, and was reacted with methanol in a sulfuric acid catalyst. OH value of synthesized polyol was 186(mg KOH/g). The polyurethane foam was synthesized with silicon type B-8409 as a surfactant, distilled water as a blowing agent, dimethylcyclohexylamine as a catalyst, and polymeric MDI. The density, the compressive strength, the compressive modulus, and the cell structure of the synthesized foam were investigated. The foam was prepared with changing the mole ratio of MDI, and the amount of water, surfactant, and catalyst. As the MDI index was increased, the density and the compressive property of the foam were increased.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.139-154
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• 2016

The usage of sandwich structure is extensively increasing in lightweight protective structures due to its low density and other useful properties. Sandwich panels made of metal sheets with unfilled cellular cores are found to exhibit lower deflections by comparing to an equivalent monolithic plate of same metal and similar mass per unit density. However, the process of localized impact on solid structures involving plastic deformation, high strain rates, temperature effect, material erosion, etc. does not hold effectively as that of monolithic plate. In present work, the applications of the sandwich plate with corrugated core have been extended to develop optimized lightweight armour using foam as medium of its core by explicit finite element analysis (FEA). The mechanisms of hardened steel projectile penetration of aluminum corrugated sandwich panels filled with foams have been numerically investigated by finite element analysis (FEA). A comparative study is done for the triangular corrugated sandwich plate filled with polymeric foam and metallic foam with different densities in order to achieve the optimum penetration resistance to ballistic impact. Corrugated sandwich plates filled with metallic foams are found to be superior when compared to the polymeric one. The optimized results are then compared with that of equivalent solid and unfilled cores structure to observe the effectiveness of foam-filled corrugated sandwich plate which provides an effective resistance to ballistic response. The novel structure can be the alternative to solid aluminum plate in the applications of light weight protection system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.104-112
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• 2014

Generally, numerical approaches of evaluation for vehicle seat comfort have been studied without considering time-dependent characteristics and the only seating moment have been considered in seat design. However, the comfort not only at the seating moment but also in the long-term should be evaluated because the passengers are sitting repeatedly on the seat to drive the vehicle for hours. So, the aim of this paper is to carry out a quantitative evaluation of the time-dependent mechanical characteristics of seat foams and to suggest a process for predicting the viscoelastic deformation of seat foam in response to long-term driving. To characterize the seat materials, uniaxial compression and tension tests were carried out for the seat foam and stress relaxation tests were performed for evaluating the viscoelastic behavior of the seat foam. A unit solid element model was used to verify the reliability of the material model with respect to the compression behavior of the seat foam. It is not straightforward to evaluate the time-dependent compression of foams using the explicit solver because the viscoelastic material model is limited. To use the explicit solver, the material model must be modified using stress-degradation data. Normalized stress relaxation moduli were added to the stress-strain curves obtained under static conditions to achieve a time-dependent set of stress-strain relations that were compatible with the implicit solver. There was good agreement between the analysis results and experimental data.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.131-134
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• 2004

In this paper, a representative unit volume (RUV) model was employed to simulate thermoforming process of carbon fabric-polymeric foam sandwich structures. Thermoforming simulations, which capture crimp angles and amplitude changes of carbon fabric with respect to different types of foams under the operating pressure were conducted with the help of RUV model. Changed shapes of tow structure after thermoforming were reflected in the two dimensional to determine mechanical properties of skin parts, i.e_ carbon fabric composites after thermoforming. Bending simulations with respect to different foam systems as well as different moduli of carbon fabric composites were successfully carried out by using properties obtained from two-dimensional analyses.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.81-86
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• 2015

In this study, natural rubber latex foam was prepared in order to replace commercialized polyurethane foams as a car seat material. Physical properties of the latex foam were investigated and the light stability was improved. The latex foam was mixed in an aqueous solution state, and the degree of foaming and the accelerator ratios were appropriately controlled. Tensile properties, hysteresis and dynamic mechanical properties of the latex foam were measured to compare with those of polyurethane foams. UV light absorbers and radical scavengers were added for improving light stability of the latex foam. Xenon lamp test was conducted to investigate the effects of the reagents on light stability. Our results revealed that the prepared latex foam including a light absorber with an antioxidant showed excellent light stable performances.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.603-608
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• 2010

In this study, one type of circular shaped composite tube was used, combined with reinforcing foam and without foam. Furthermore, CFRP(Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) circular member manufactured from CFRP prepreg sheet for lightweight design. CFRP is an anisotropic material which is the most widely adapted lightweight structural member. The crashworthy behavior of circular composite material tubes subjected to static axial compression under same conditions is reported in this paper. Test was executed in order to compare the results to the energy absorption and collapse shape. The collapse mode during the failure process were observed and analyzed. The behavior of polymeric foams to the tubes crashworthiness were also investigated. According to the experimental results, specimens filled with foam are higher total energy absorption than the other specimens not filled with the foam.