Stress Plateau of Multilayered Corrugated Paperboard in Various Ambient Humidities

Abstract

This paper presents a mathematical model to predict the stress plateau of multilayered corrugated paperboard under flatwise compression in various humidity environments. The model relates the stress plateau to the thickness‐to‐flute pitch ratio of corrugated core cell, the yield stress of corrugated medium and the relative humidity in surrounding air. Multilayered corrugated paperboards with a wide range of thickness‐to‐flute pitch ratios are investigated under several levels of ambient humidities to explore the effect of relative humidity on the stress plateau of multilayered corrugated paperboard. Comparison of the predictions and experiments is made, and a good correlation is achieved corroborating the feasibility and accuracy of the model. The proposed method can be used for practical application of the optimum design and material selection of multilayered corrugated paperboard. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.