Establishment of the microstructure of porous materials and its relationship with effective mechanical properties

Abstract

Abstract In this study, a porous structure for a porous liquid storage medium is generated, and the homogenization theory based on displacement boundary conditions is used to predict the effective mechanical properties. The relationship between the porous material's macroscopic mechanical properties and microstructure is next analyzed. In order to establish the relationship between the microstructure of porous materials and their macroscopic mechanical properties, assuming that the pores grow along the z direction, a method is proposed to generate 3D open-cell porous materials based on six design parameters (i.e., the number of pores, porosity, irregularity of pore distribution, the randomness of pore growth in the x and y directions, and randomness of pore size). Since the porosity of oil-bearing materials ranges from 20–30%, the porosity of the RVE (Representative Volume Element) was kept under control at about 25%, and the effect of the six design factors on the mechanical properties of the RVE was investigated. Utilizing SLA 3D printing technology, specimens were produced, and compression tests were used to show how useful the results of the numerical analysis were. The results demonstrated that the mechanical properties of the models generated with the identical design parameters are similar whenever the number of RVE pores reaches 16 and the irregularity of the pore distribution reaches 0.25. The mechanical properties of porous materials simultaneously decrease in the z direction and increase in the x and y directions as the randomness of pore growth increases. Pore size randomness has a similar effect on RVE as pore growth randomness. However, the pore size's randomization can lead to instability in the RVE's porosity, which can lead to unstable mechanical properties. The mechanical properties of RVE are simultaneously affected by the design parameters, which are superimposed.