Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

A Numerical Method For Studying The Effectiveness Of Polyurethane Foam As Personal Protective Equipment Material, Lamia Tahsin Aroni

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis documents the characterization of flexible polyurethane foam (FPF) to be used as a personal protective equipment material. Polyurethane samples were tested experimentally to calculate the physical properties which were later re-created using a numerical model. A discrete element modeling software was used to generate the geometry to mimic the physical properties of FPF. The pore level numerical model was used to calculate the possible rate of particle penetration for a range (0.2 -200) µm of particle sizes. A parametric study was done using the polyurethane foam parameters to understand the breathing dynamics under steady conditions. The possible particle …