X-Ray Computed Tomography on a Cellular Polysiloxane under Compression

Abstract

X-ray tomographic images were collected for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) foam material under various levels of compression. The goal was to implement a systematic analysis method of correlating some aspect of these images to the cell morphology in order to enhance understanding of the material characteristics. X-ray attenuation of the cellular PDMS was clearly observed to increase with the specimen density as the foam material was mechanically compressed. The stochastic data derived from the digital images was used to calculate macroscopic mechanical properties at each foam compression.