Abstract
This paper discusses the reliability of two approaches in modeling the Flexible Polyurethane Foam (FPF) behavior. FPFs are cellular polymers characterized by highly complex mechanical behavior including nonlinearity, viscoelasticity, hysteresis, and residual deformations. The review of this topic reveals that several studies have developed models based either on hereditary or on fractional derivation formulations. However, the viscoelastic behavior of the material integrates both short and long memory effects, which needs the combination of the two mathematical approaches to cover the full behavior of such a material. This work compares the two methodologies in identifying the parameters of foam behavior using the combined model. The approaches are based on experimental observations of the FPF behavior on compression (short memory effects) and cyclic (long memory effects) loadings. The relative inefficiency of the force difference method widely addressed in modeling processes was specially discussed.