6. Conclusion

Controlling the reactive expansion of polyurethane foams in molds with complex geometries is a highly complex task. To better describe the physico-chemical mechanisms involved in foaming, it is necessary to make numerous (often over-simplifying) assumptions in an attempt to (semi)analytically determine the evolution of foam porosity and viscosity (or viscoelasticity), in order to link structural properties to process conditions.

At least a phenomenological description of reactive foaming requires a number of detailed experiments: DSC, rheometry, XRD and RheoFoam are just some examples. In all cases, the aim is to measure the evolution of thermomechanical and/or microstructural properties in situ during the reaction, in order to extract information about the chemical reactions.

The use of an ad-hoc simulation tool is also essential to better...

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Bibliography

(1) - BOUAYAD (R.), BIKARD (J.), AGASSANT (J.A.) - Compressible flow in a plate/plate rheometer : application to the experimental determination of reactive expansion's models parameters for polyurethane foam - Int. J. of Forming Processes, in revision (2008).
(2)...

Software tools

Here is a non-exhaustive list of software for numerical simulation of foam injection into a mold:

VirtuFoam: 2D planar and axisymmetric finite element foam calculation modules using Matlab© software – coupling equation of motion, heat, conservation of chemical species, evolution of the material front in a mold.

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