The comparative analysis of 2D and 3D microstructural models stresses of porous polymer materials

Abstract

Finite element simulations were performed to study the stress state of 2D and 3D microstructural models of porous soft material under tensile loading by constant strain. The differences of stresses of 2D RVEs and 3D RVE cross-section identical to 2D RVE were obtained. The results showed that the solution of 2D problem provides a clear tendency of 3D problem solution. However, the quite complete agreement of the results was not observed. If 2D model represents well the geometric properties of 3D model, the rigorous prediction of deformation behaviour of volumetric material could be done using 2D RVE. The difference between stresses of 2D and 3D RVEs did not exceed 10 % in this case. If 2D RVE roughly defines all geometric properties of 3D model, only the tendency of the stress distribution and the value could be evaluated in 2D RVE because the difference between stresses of 2D and 3D RVEs can exceed 10 %.