Generation of open foam RVEs with sharp edges using Distance fields and Level sets

A methodology to generate Representative Volume Elements for open foam
cellular materials based on distance and level set functions is explained. The main focus
of this work is to properly represent the geometry of the sharp edges of the foam struts
that are resulting from the solidification phase during manufacturing. An approach to generate RVEs for open-cell foams is described in [1], where arbitrary shaped tessellations are produced and specific combination of distance functions are used to generate open foam RVEs. Steep discontinuities in the distance functions derivatives result in the generation of jagged sharp edges, due to the use of discrete level set functions. The procedure to extract geometries from multiple level set functions to reproduce such sharp edges of the struts proposed in [1] has been incorporated in the current work.
The individual cells are extracted as inclusion surfaces based on distance functions. The
inclusion surfaces are then modified using multiple level set functions, and the sharp
edges are computed from the intersection of these inclusions. The resulting geometry
can then be meshed using size functions based on curvature and narrowness and a mesh
optimization inspired from [2]. The methodology to produce high quality meshes based on
[3] will be outlined (Figure 2). The resulting FE models will be then used in simulations
to assess the practical applications of these models by comparing with experimental data
of physical samples.