Surface stress and strain fields on compressed panels of corrugated board boxes. An experimental analysis by using Digital Image Stereocorrelation

The complex behaviour of corrugated board packages under compression loading is investigated in this work. Original experimental data are obtained by using a Digital Image Stereocorrelation technique for measuring the displacement and strain fields of the panels’ outer liner of the tested boxes. The stress field is also estimated by accounting for the anisotropic mechanical behaviour of the outer liner, its residual stress state induced by the processing of the corrugated board and the effects of box manufacturing operations and compression. Results show that these fields are extremely heterogeneous on the panels’ surface. Most stressed areas are located along the panels’ edges. The elastic limit of the outer liner is reached quite soon during compression. Box geometry and panel flaps are of primary importance on the observed phenomena. This approach delivers useful information to improve kinematic and constitutive assumptions for buckling and post-buckling models of boxes or thin-walled sandwich structures.