# 0303 / Composite Beam Tests with Closed Cell Polyurethane and Aluminum Foam Title: Composite Beam Tests with Closed Cell Polyurethane and Aluminum Foam Authors: George Mason, Ethan Salman, and Shiraz Mujahid Abstract: The frames of many commercial vehicles are composed of rectangular tubular steel and are a significant portion of the gross vehicle weight. The introduction of a composite frame would potentially reduce weight and increase structural properties. We compare a baseline frame section to new composite sections injected with two different types of foam: a polyurethane and aluminum foam. The objective was to increase the overall strength and stiffness, while leaving the overall weight of the frame unchanged or reduced by reducing the plate thickness of the tubular steel. Sections of rectangular tubular steel are tested individually with and without the inclusion of aluminum and closed cell polyurethane foam. The potential advantages include light weighting vehicles, increasing strength and durability, improving ride through a more ridged/stiffer un-sprung mass, and the ability to make quick structural repairs of a compromised vehicle frame. The study revealed that injecting of polyurethane foam produced increase in strength while the aluminum foam did not increase the strength. Order the full paper: ISTVS members: receive three papers per year as part of your membership via the ISTVS Member Portal: --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://2022.istvs.org/papers/0303.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.