Polyurethane foams
How did we choose them ?
In order to see through our project about cellular materials, we first chose to adopt an approach focused on their acoustic properties.
For this, we bought sound insulating materials used in construction industry (polyurethane foams) and for human ear (earplug) in order to characterise them and to understand how they work.
Then, we decided to make the connection with natural cellular materials used in the same cases. Therefore, we studied cork.
Foams
First, we headed towards polyurethane foams in order to study their structure and their acoustic properties.
We bought two foam slabs of 2m x 1.4m to website of the company named “solution-élastomères”.
The first slab is foam called alveolar foam because it has undulations on its surface which enable a better acoustic insulation than plane foam.
The second slab has a plane surface with a waterproof coating for external insulation or for humid environment.
You can find below description of these foams given by the manufacturer in his catalogue.
These materials were delivered at the ENSIACET and financed by the CIRIMAT.
You can see them as we received them in April 2012 :
Little pieces of theses slabs were cut in order to be observed under SEM or to be used in our mechanical and acoustic experiments and also for a chemical characterisation of polymers.
