Modeling and limits of strength of nanoporous foams

To reveal the size effect of the strength of nanoporous foams, power functions were suggested to model the tested ligament strength. The expressions of the strength of the nanoporous foam were built on the basis of the power function and well fitted the experiment data. Two kinds of critical relative density were deduced to direct the foam design. The upper one was obtained to manufacture nanoporous foams with greater strength or specific strength compared with the bulk material. The lower limit was deduced to confirm the critical relative density below which the nanoporous foam would be controlled by far smaller elastic buckling collapse strength. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.