Manufacturing and analysis of dynamic and mechanical properties of rigid nanocomposite polyurethane foam reinforced by nano particles of SiC

In this article, mechanical properties and energy absorption of polyurethane nanocomposite foam reinforced by SiC nano particales under quasi-static and dynamic axial load was investigated. The specimens were prepared initially by mixing of Polyol and nano particales and then diisocyanate was added to the mixture to prepare the foam specimens. To evaluate the mechanical properties of the specimens, tensile, compression and dynamic tests were performed. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was utilized to study the effect of nano particles on cellular morphology of the foams. The results of experiments show that the tensile strength, compressive strength and energy absorption of the polyurethane nanocomposite foam reinforced with SiC nanoparticles was more than pure polyurethane foam. With the addition of 1 wt% SiC nanoparticles to polyurethane foam, the Young’s modulus and the energy absorption increases 7% and 63%, respectively. Also, by adding SiC nano particles, the uniformity of cell size decreased and the number of cells increases. The results of this research show that the polyurethane nanocomposite foam reinforced with SiC nano particales can be used in various industries as an energy absorber.