Effect of defects on creep behavior of cellular materials

• The 2D honeycombs models and 3D tetrakaidecahedron models have been established to investigate the defect-effect on creep behavior of cellular materials.
• The creep behavior of the imperfect cellular materials is not only related to the fraction of missing struts, but also depends on the type of missing struts.
• A theoretical model as a function of missing rate was developed to simulate creep response.

Finite element models, i.e. 2D honeycombs and 3D tetrakaidecahedron models, have been established to study defect-effect on the creep behavior of the cellular materials. Simulation results indicated that relative density have dominant effects on the steady state creep rate of the cellular materials. The creep behavior of the cellular materials is significantly correlated with the fraction of missing struts. A theoretical equation is proposed to predict the creep rate of cellular materials as a function of the ratio of different types of missing struts. The capability of the theoretical model was examined by simulating the creep behavior of two types of numerical models. The simulation results revealed that the theoretical model gives a good description of the creep response.