Particle reinforced (PR) polymer foams are promising materials for lightweight structures. In this research, compression tests were conducted on glass beads (GBs) reinforced linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) foams. The experimental results indicated that embedding GBs could increase the yield strength, elastic modulus and energy absorption capacity of bulk material. Analytical predictions of GBs reinforced foams were also used to compare with experimental results. To investigate the micromechanics of neat foams and glass PR foams under compression, the finite element (FE) simulations were conducted. The analysis of neat foams indicated that the strain localization occurred at right and left sides of hollow cells during the plateau stage. For GBs reinforced foams, the foam matrix around the particle reinforcements was nearly densified while the foam matrix without GBs remained undensified due to the stabilisation of glass particles. The parametric studies reasonably explained why hardening stress of foam increases with the decrease of particle size.

颗粒增强（PR）聚合物泡沫是用于轻质结构的有前途的材料。在这项研究中，对玻璃珠（GB）增强的线性低密度聚乙烯（LLDPE）泡沫进行了压缩测试。实验结果表明，嵌入GBs可以提高块状材料的屈服强度，弹性模量和能量吸收能力。GBs增强泡沫的分析预测也用于与实验结果进行比较。为了研究压缩下的纯泡沫和玻璃PR泡沫的微力学，进行了有限元（FE）模拟。对纯泡沫的分析表明，在平台期，应变局部化发生在中空泡孔的右侧和左侧。对于GBs增强泡沫，颗粒增强物周围的泡沫基质几乎被致密，而没有GBs的泡沫基质由于玻璃颗粒的稳定而保持不致密。参数研究合理地解释了为什么泡沫的硬化应力会随着粒径的减小而增加。