Material Properties

Material properties are accessible from the Materials Database and My Materials tabs in the Materials dialog.

Materials Database Tab

The Materials Database tab lists the materials included with Inspire PolyFoam. The tab also provides access to properties that you can review and modify for each material. You can save any modified materials as new materials and access them and their properties through My Materials tab.


Select a material from the list. The primary properties for the selected material are organized through the Mixing Ratio, Material, Chemical Reaction, Viscosity Model and Foam Rheology Model tabs.


Mixing Ratio Tab

The Mixing Ratio tab includes the following material properties:

Property Description
Isocyanate Mixing ratio = Polyol (100g): Isocyanate [g]
OH Quantity of KOH [mgKOH/g]
Water Mass of water [g]
NCO Percentage of NCO in the polyisocyanate by weight [%]
Physical Blowing Agent Mass of physical blowing agent [g]
You can designate up to five different physical blowing agents. Click the Edit button and select "Multiple" from the Physical Blowing Agent dropdown menu.

Material Tab

The Material tab includes a second row of tabs to define Density, Specific Heat, Conductivity, Molecular Weight and Boiling Temperature for the materials.


The Density subtab includes fields for the polymer and each physical blowing agent.

The Specific Heat and Conductivity subtabs include fields for the polymer, CO2 gas, and each physical blowing agent (liquid and gas).

The Molecular Weight and Boiling Temperature subtabs includes fields for each physical blowing agent.

Chemical Reaction Tab

The Chemical Reaction tab includes a second row of tabs to define properties for Reaction Type, Isocyanurate Reaction, Gelling, Chemical Blowing, Physical Blowing, Gelling Ratio and CO2 Saturation. These properties include:

Property Description
Type Reaction type can be set to Reversible or Irreversible.
Isocyanurate Reaction Isocyanurate reaction can be set to Enabled or Disabled.
A Pre-exponential factor expressed in 1/s.
E Activation energy of the chemical reaction expressed in J/(g mol).
dH Heat generation/dissipation of the chemical reaction expressed in J/(g mol).
Temperature Temperature to start the gelling reaction.
Order of Reaction Order of the reaction in reaction kinetics.
Ratio OH conversion at gelling point for the entire foam part.
Fluid Critical Ratio OH conversion at gelling point for individual cells.
Saturation The saturation level defines the initial mass of the CO2 that is dissolved in the polyurethane's mass. Saturation is related to cream time.

Viscosity Model Tab

The Viscosity Model tab includes a table to define the Gelling Rate percentage, which is calculated according to the amount of OH or NCO for a given material. Select By X_OH or By X_NCO in the Type dropdown menu.


Foam Rheology Model Tab

The Foam Rheology Model tab includes three rheological models: Carreau, Bingham and Power-Law. Choose the model that is appropriate for your material and define the exponent, viscosity and constant.