Foamwood project develops a novel method for manufacturing bio-based foams for the purpose of making laminated structures with extraordinary mechanical properties. The project combines the novel materials and development expertize on bio-based materials knowhow and foam physics of both VTT and Aalto. Specifically, the project aims to utilize modeling-based ideas in setting up the process and the materials rheology to speed-up the process development.
Main results
We have succeeded in manipulating the foam structure by deforming the bubbles and making them anisotropic in the wet state
We have prepared a rheological characterization protocol to characterize material properties that are meaningful for the process
We have found new recipes with improved foam rheology for our novel process leading to high air content and good bubble elongation
Publications (see also links below the news item)
Viitanen, L., Miranda-Valdez, I.Y., Koivisto, J., Puisto, A., and Alava, M. Thermal gelation of cellulose based suspensions. Cellulose, 30, 4215–4223 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-023-05150-7
Koochi, H., Mac Intyre, J., Viitanen, L., Puisto, A., Maleki-Jirsaraei, N., and Alava, M. Local time-dependent microstructure of aging TEMPO nanofibrillated cellulose gel. Cellulose, 30, 61–74 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-022-04900-3
Miranda-Valdez, I.Y., Viitanen, L., Mac Intyre, J.R., Puisto, A., Koivisto, J., and Alava M. Predicting effect of fibers on thermal gelation of methylcellulose using Bayesian optimization, Carbohydrate Polymers, 298, 119921 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2022.119921.
Reichler, M., Rabensteiner, S., Törnblom, L., Coffeng, S., Viitanen, L., Jannuzzi, L., Mäkinen, T., Mac Intyre, J.R., Koivisto, J., Puisto, A., Alava, M. Scalable method for bio-based solid foams that mimic wood. Scientific Reports, 11, 24306 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03764-0
Viitanen, L., Rheological properties of structured complex fluids, Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL THESES, 100/2022. https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/116113