The design and manufacture of optimised structural components is desired by many areas of engineering. These components could be optimised for structural performance, weight reduction, or combinations of attributes. Lightweight porous materials offer opportunities to produce such components with designed internal structures of controlled porosity as their mechanical performance is controlled by their porosity and density. Such components can be designed, through methods such as topology optimisation to offer improved mechanical properties when compared to homogeneous counterparts. Yet the production of such heterogeneous materials or components is presently beyond the capabilities of current manufacturing technologies. The manufacture of large-scale heterogeneous porous materials, that could realise the optimised designs of topology optimisation cannot currently be manufactured in high-volumes. In this thesis a method is proposed to modify the localised porous structure of thermosetting polymer foams using ultrasound, as a future method to control the localised porosity of a bulk component. [Continues.]
History
School
Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering