Compressive Mechanical Behavior and Corresponding Failure Mechanism of Polymethacrylimide Foam Induced by Thermo-Mechanical Coupling

Thermal-mechanical coupling during the molding process can cause compressive yield in the polymer foam core and then affect the molding quality of the sandwich structure. This work investigates the compressive mechanical properties and failure mechanism of polymethacrylimide (PMI) foam in the molding temperature range of 20-120 degree celsius. First, the DMA result indicates that PMI foam has minimal mechanical loss in the 20 similar to 120 degree celsius range and can be regarded as an elastoplastic material, and the TGA curve further proves that the PMI foam is thermally stable within 120 degree celsius. Then, the compression results show that compared with 20 degree celsius, the yield stress and elastic modulus of PMI foam decrease by 22.0% and 17.5% at 80 degree celsius and 35.2% and 31.4% at 120 degree celsius, respectively. Meanwhile, the failure mode changes from brittle fracture to plastic yield at about 80 degree celsius. Moreover, a real representative volume element (rRVE) of PMI foam is established by using Micro-CT and Avizo 3D reconstruction methods, and the simulation results indicate that PMI foam mainly shows brittle fractures at 20 degree celsius, while both brittle fractures and plastic yield occur at 80 degree celsius, and most foam cells undergo plastic yield at 120 degree celsius. Finally, the simulation based on a single-cell RVE reveals that the air pressure inside the foam has an obvious influence of about 6.7% on the yield stress of PMI foam at 80 degree celsius (brittle-plastic transition zone).