A macroscopic finite strain model for cellular polymers

Viscoelastic polymer foams and synthetic sponges are exploited in a wide range of engineering applications. The cellular micro structure, as a result of the foaming process, gives these porous materials their outstanding mechanical characteristics. However, this complex cellular structure demands for an appropriate model for the description at a suitable means of computational costs. The goal of this paper is to present an efficient, large strain, multiphasic continuum model based on the Theory of Porous Media (TPM) accounting for the porous cell structure, the moving and interacting pore-fluid and the intrinsic viscoelastic behaviour of the polymer solid matrix.