Investigating the Mechanical Properties of Paperboard Packaging Material for Handling Fresh Produce Under Different Environmental Conditions: Experimental Analysis and Finite Element Modelling
Paper and paperboard are the most widely used packaging materials in the world. The combination of corrugated medium (fluting) and linerboard can be varied to design a corrugated paperboard package in relation to specific mechanical properties of the paper and paperboard. Tensile tests were performed on five different paper grammages (175 g m-2, 200 g m-2, 225 g m-2, 250 g m-2, and 300 g m-2) in the principal directions of the paperboard (machine direction, cross direction and thickness direction) at standard conditions (23°C and 50% relative humidity) and refrigerated transport conditions (0°C and 90% relative humidity). At the same environmental conditions, edgewise compression tests were performed on the corrugated paperboard. Results showed that the mechanical properties of paper and paperboard were affected by the environmental conditions. At the refrigerated transport conditions, the modulus of elasticity strongly decreased in the range of 20 – 53% compared to standard conditions for all the paper grammages. The modulus of elasticity was observed to be higher in the machine direction (MD) than other directions for all the paper grammages. The buckling behaviour of the experimental edgewise compression test of the corrugated paperboard was compared with numerical results. The finite element model of the corrugated paperboard accurately predicted the experimental value of the incipient buckling load with an error of 0.4% and 5.5% at the standard and refrigerated conditions, respectively
