Dynamic material properties of a closed-cell polyethylene foam

With today's high standards of technology, transportation stresses can be almost completely described so that certain conclusions for the packaging container can be drawn. But an optimized, cost-efficient container is only possible, if the material behaviour and the environment of the packaging material used are known /1/. Foams belong to the most important class of packaging materials. Their dynamic behaviour is usually qualified by empirical property-values which are not suitable for the construction of packing containers, but present only approximate values. In the context of this paper, it is shown how dynamic mechanical behaviour of a closed-cell foam can be experimentally determined. The obtained results are explained and discussed.