Compressive Strength of Corrugated Paperboard Packages with Low and High Cutout Rates: Numerical Modelling and Experimental Validation

Abstract

The finite element method is a widely used numerical method to analyze structures in virtual space. This method can be used in the packaging industry to determine the mechanical properties of corrugated boxes. This study aims to create and validate a numerical model to predict the compression force of corrugated cardboard boxes by considering the influence of different cutout configurations of sidewalls. The types of investigated boxes are the following: the width and height of the boxes are 300 mm in each case and the length dimension of the boxes varied from 200 mm to 600 mm with a 100 mm increment. The cutout rates were 0%, 4%, 16%, 36%, and 64% with respect to the total surface area of sidewalls of the boxes. For the finite element analysis, a homogenized linear elastic orthotropic material model with Hill plasticity was used. The results of linear regressions show very good estimations to the numerical and experimental box compression test (BCT) values in each tested box group. Therefore, the numerical model can give a good prediction for the BCT force values from 0% cutout to 64% cutout rates. The accuracy of the numerical model decreases a little when the cutout rates are high. Based on the results, this paper presents a numerical model that can be used in the packaging design to estimate the compression strength of corrugated cardboard boxes.

A Simplified Dynamic Strength Analysis of Cardboard Packaging Subjected to Transport Loads

“…In the study, the static analysis of the box compression, as shown in Figure 3A, replicated the laboratory test conditions, which was similar to [3,16,17]. In the finite element method (FEM) analysis, only the load-bearing walls of the packaging were modeled (Figure 4).…”

“…The finite element method (FEM) is one of the most commonly used numerical methods for the mechanical analysis of structures [6,7]. The effectiveness of this method is confirmed by many scientific works and industrial implementations, including in the cardboard packaging industry [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. The finite element method requires the use of detailed/accurate packaging geometry in order to obtain reliable calculation results.…”