Probabilistic homogenization of solid foams with application to sandwich structures

The present study is concerned with a numerical analysis of the scatter in the effective material response of solid foams deriving from the microstructural disorder of the material. The effective stress and strain components are determined numerically by means of an volume averaging procedure. In a probabilistic enhancement, the approach is applied to small-scale testing volume elements in order to obtain the stochastic information regarding the local scatter in the effective material properties. As a case study, a single edge clamped sandwich beam with foam core is considered. The material parameters of the foam core are defined as a random field whose properties are determined by the probabilistic homogenization procedure.