Numerical and Experimental Analysis of the Structural Behavior of an EPP Component

The use of expanded polymeric materials is becoming increasingly widespread in the industrial sector, not only for energy absorption purposes but also for structural applications. The most widely used approach to model the large strain elastic response of polymer foams in a finite element (FE) solution is the use of the Ogden–Hill hyperelastic material model. We performed a uniaxial and simple shear test to calibrate the model’s parameters. In this work, a compression test was performed on a component, entirely made of expanded polypropylene, from a commercial machine. The experimental results, measured through 3D image analysis, were then compared with the simulation ones. This study aims to verify whether the Ogden foam model accurately describes the material’s behavior when the component has a complex geometry and large dimensions.