A method for the inverse estimation of the static elastic compressional moduli of anisotropic poroelastic foams - With application to a melamine foam

This paper presents the application of a method for the characterisation of the static, fully relaxed elastic properties of poroelastic materials. The approach is based on full field measurements of the 3D displacements in a number of points on the faces of the compressed material sample. These are used as targets in an inverse estimation to fit a model of the material to the experimental data. The material is modelled as an orthotropic equivalent solid, whose principal directions are not necessarily aligned with the coordinate system in which the experiments are conducted. The angles of relative orientation accounting for the potential misalignment are estimated, together with the elastic moduli of the material. In addition, the proposed model considers the region of reduced stiffness close to material discontinuities, which has been identified in previous investigations. The method is applied to a melamine foam, which is found to have its lowest stiffness in the direction parallel to the rise direction of the material.