A refined strut model for describing the elastic properties of highly porous cellular polymers reinforced with short fibers

A structural model of a highly porous cellular plastic reinforced with short fibers is developed for calculating its linearly elastic characteristics. By means of orientationally averaging the stiffness tensors of structural elements, whose dimensions and properties also depend on their spatial orientation, relationships for the stiffness tensor of entire cellular plastic are derived. It is shown that they allowed us to describe experimental data for the elastic moduli of a transversely isotropic nanoclay-filled foam plastic reinforced with short carbon fibers.