Numerical Modeling of Disordered Foam in 3D: Effective Properties by Homogenization

We investigate the numerical modeling and simulation of mechanical effective properties of disordered foams in 3d. We consider the elasticity, the thermal conductivity as well as the permeability. We present a meshing procedure for the microstructure of randomly disordered wet foams. The material behavior is modeled by constitutive equations and a boundary value problem is set on the microstructure. We present and implement the homogenization approach for the determination of the effective mechanical properties. The local problems are discretized and solved with the finite element method. We investigate the monodisperse and disordered configuration of a wet foam by varying the volume fraction.