Foams, or what are often called cellular solids, are some of the most widely used materials in the modern era. In general, foam is a porous substance formed by the introduction of gas filled pores into condensed matter; the result is typically a light weight substance with properties related to the base (non-porous) medium. Applications of foams include: vibration dampening, energy mitigation (such as packaging and bike helmets), insulation, filtration, and flotation.

The focus of this work is on the properties of flexible elastomeric foam of high relative-density. The bulk of existing literature on elastomeric foam is concerned with foam of low relative-density (ratio of the foam density to the density of the material from which the foam is formed ≤ 0.1). The relationship between the micro-structure of high relative-density foam and its mechanical response has, in large part, not been subjected to systematic investigation heretofore.

The present work examines how the micro-structural features of pore shape, size, and location affect the macro-structural response of relative high density foam to compressive loading. In order to carry out this study, methods were developed and employed to control a foam's micro-structure, and hence its mechanical response, with the use of temporary pore forming particles and micron scale inclusions. Advanced microscopy techniques were used to observe, in situ, the evolution of a foam's micro-structure under compressive loading, and the results were correlated with the evolution of the foam's stress -- strain response. Additionally, quantitative methods were developed and employed to describe numerically the foam's micro-structural features, such as: (i), pore shape, (ii), pore size, and (iii), the arrangement of the pores with respect to each other. Numerous foams were produced, tested, and subjected to the methodology developed for this study.