Biphasic description of viscoelastic foams by use of an extended Ogden-type formulation

Soft polymeric foams exhibit distinct relaxation and creep phenomena which in combination with the cellular micro structure result in the outstanding mechanical characteristics of this type of porous materials. It is the goal of this contribution to present an appropriate biphasic continuum mechanical model based on the Theory of Porous Media (TPM) which allows the description of viscoelastic foams at a suitable means of computational costs. To reproduce the complex behaviour of the cellular polymer skeleton an extended Ogden-type viscoelasticity formulation is embedded into the porous media concept. Thus, the macroscopic model accounts for all relevant physical properties, i. e. the porous cell structure, the moving and interacting pore-fluid, and the intrinsic viscoelasticity of the polymeric matrix material.