Three-Dimensional Optical Measurements of Porous Foams

The optical, noncontact stereovision system and data analysis procedure are developed for the measurement of porous foams. The stereovision measurement system has demonstrated the capability to capture both the micro-scale features and the macro-scale shape of both the open-cell and closed-cell porous foams. A computational procedure, denoted as the grid method, is developed to identify representative planes on the porous foam surface using the stereovision measured data points. The relative positions between planes can be used to calculate the angles and distances between porous foam surfaces. A SiC open-cell and an aluminum closed-cell foams are used as examples to validate the grid method and demonstrate its computational efficiency. This research enables the form measurements and geometrical dimensioning and tolerancing of porous foams for quality control and assembly and contact analysis. DOI: 10.1115/1.2194556