Porous materials are of interest for a number of applications one of them being energy absorption. These materials offer the ability to absorb more energy than a typical metallic solid and thus provide an opportunity to improve the performance of structures that endure blast loads. These structures undergo very large loads in very short periods of time and therefore maximizing energy absorption is paramount. This study seeks to improve the understanding of the response of porous materials by developing both analytical and finite element models for a liquid filled porous cylinder exposed to a dynamic compression loading.
The poroelastic cylinder consists of a porous metallic solid phase and a viscous liquid phase. These two phases provide for two mechanisms of energy dissipation which are that of the deformation of the solid and the viscous flow of the liquid. The theories of elasticity and porous media were used to formulate the governing equations for the liquid filled porous cylinder. These equations describe the coupling between the displacements of the solid cylinder and the pressure distribution of the liquid. Analytical and finite element models were developed to predict the cylinders response in order to determine the amount of energy absorbed when the cylinder is exposed to a dynamic compression load. Analytical models were developed to validate the finite element results. As more complexity is added to this problem an analytical approach becomes unviable and a finite element approach must be used. One such complexity that can be considered is the effect of utilizing a non-constant liquid viscosity, which requires developing a non-linear finite element model to account for the viscositys dependence on strain rate. This added non-linear effect should allow for additional viscous energy to be absorbed and thus can further enhance the performance of the system.