Scientific Article

Structure-property relationships of polydisperse open-cell foams: Application to melamine foams

¹ Univ Gustave Eiffel, Univ Paris Est Creteil, CNRS, UMR 8208, MSME, 77454 Marne-la-Vallée, France
² TREVES Products, Services & Innovation, 2-4 rue Emile Arquès - CS 70017, 51686 Reims Cedex 2, France
³ The State Key Laboratory of Heavy-duty and Express High-power Electric Locomotive, Zhuzhou 412001, Hunan Province, China
⁴ LMEE Univ-Evry, Université Paris-Saclay, 91020 Evry, France
⁵ Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No.1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430074, China
⁶ Univ Gustave Eiffel, CNRS, EA 4508, LGE, 77454 Marne-la-Vallée, France

^* Corresponding author: camille.perrot@univ-eiffel.fr

Received: 28 February 2024
Accepted: 29 July 2024

Abstract

Melamine foam, categorized as an open-cell foam structure, absorbs sound through its three-dimensional network of thin struts. The pore size polydispersity within the open-cell melamine microstructure is evidenced from a top-down approach and confirmed by scanning electron microscope (SEM)-image analysis. The remarkable ability of melamine foams to mitigate sound energy is attributed to the pore size distribution, which encompasses co-existing pores of distinct characteristic sizes. Consequently, low-frequency and high-frequency fluid flows will follow different paths within the pore structure. A poly-sized model, which provides a connection between microstructure polydispersity and macroscopic properties, is successfully applied to three different melamine foams. This work highlights the significance and implications of polydispersity effects on the acoustic behavior of open-cell foams.