Experimental-numerical methods for inverse characterisation of some material properties of anisotropic-anelastic porous materials

A general methodology for characterisation of some of the anisotropic properties of open-cell porous materials will be presented. The scheme is based on a general inverse formulation in which the main idea is to isolate a specific physical mechanism in a dedicated measurement set-up that may be modelled by principles only considering the property of interest. Examples discussed are related to the estimation of flow resistivity; identification of the elastic-anelastic moduli in Hooke´s law. To estimate the material properties a numerical, model is solved for multiple possible sets of parameters until the predicted model output matches the measured data. The parameters are determined using an optimisation tool, which minimises the difference between the predicted and the measured data. The experimental setups are briefly described, with a particular focus on the corresponding operating conditions. Recent results from characterisation of a melamine foam are reviewed.