Polymeric foams have good capacity of absorbing energy in compression but are brittle in tension. Linear elastic fracture mechanics is successfully applied to assess the integrity of polymeric foam‐based composite structures. The fracture toughness represents an important parameter. The different approaches to estimate the fracture toughness of polymeric foams are reviewed: analytical and numerical micromechanical models and experimental investigations. Focus is given on the parameters influencing the fracture toughness of polymeric foams like specimen type, solid material, density, loading speed, size effect and temperature. Data on mixed‐mode loading and dynamic fracture toughness are also presented. The last part of the paper presents some results to increase the fracture toughness by reinforcing of polymeric foams.

中文翻译：

---

硬质聚合物泡沫的断裂韧性：综述

聚合物泡沫具有良好的压缩吸收能量的能力，但在张力方面较脆。线性弹性断裂力学已成功应用于评估聚合物泡沫基复合结构的完整性。断裂韧性是重要的参数。综述了评估聚合物泡沫塑料断裂韧性的不同方法：分析和数值微力学模型以及实验研究。重点介绍了影响聚合物泡沫塑料断裂韧性的参数，例如样品类型，固体材料，密度，加载速度，尺寸效应和温度。还提供了关于混合模式载荷和动态断裂韧性的数据。本文的最后一部分提出了一些通过增强聚合物泡沫来提高断裂韧性的结果。