Influence of cell wall thickness variations on elastic stiffness of closed-cell cellular solids

The stiffness of closed-cell low-density cellular solids, or solid foams, is affected by “imperfections” such as non-uniform cell shape and size, wavy distortions of cell walls, variations in cell wall thickness, etc. The present paper focuses on the influence of non-uniform cell wall thickness on stiffness. Calculations are performed on one model with different degrees of thickness variations. The model used is the flat-faced Kelvin structure, which consists of 14-sided polyhedra in a bcc arrangement. The results indicate that the stiffness of closed-cell cellular solids is not very sensitive to thickness variations.