Quasi-static compressive response of compression molded glass microballoon/HDPE syntactic foam

Quasi-static compressive behavior of different density glass microballoon (GMB) reinforced high density polyethylene (HDPE) syntactic foams are investigated in the present work. Reducing the weight of thermoplastic components has been always a high priority in transportation, aerospace, consumer products and underwater vehicle structures. Despite continued interest in developing lightweight thermoplastic syntactic foams, they have not been studied extensively for quasi-static response with focus on wall thickness and volume fraction variations. Compression molded GMB/HDPE sheets are subjected to 0.001, 0.01 and 0.1 s−1 strain rates. Compressive modulus of foams is higher compared to neat HDPE. Increasing strain rates and decreasing filler content increases yield strength for all the foams investigated compared to neat HDPE. Yield strain and energy absorption of GMB/HDPE foams increases with an increasing strain rate and wall thickness. Specific modulus and strength of GMB/HDPE foams are superior and are comparable to neat HDPE. GMB/HDPE foam achieved high stiffness to weight ratio making them suitable for wide variety of applications. Theoretical model based on differential scheme predicts a good estimate of elastic modulus for all the type of GMB/HDPE foams. Finally, property map is exhibited to present comparative studies with existing literature.