Consolidation of cushion curves

Abstract

Abstract A simple method for the consolidation of all of the conventional cushion curves for a particular material into a single relationship is discussed. The method requires only one of the usual cushion curves for an arbitrary drop height and cushion thickness to deduce the dynamic stress‐strain curve for the material. The results can then be used to generate all other cushion curves regardless of drop height, cushion thickness, or static loading. The procedure is applied to the published sets of cushion curves for Arcel® 512 and for expanded polystyrene, separately, and the predicted shock values for various drop conditions are then compared with the actual values from the cushion curves. The error incurred in using the consolidated data instead of the cushion curves is shown to fall within the limits of accuracy associated with the cushion curves themselves. The method offers many advantages, such as compactness of information, a continuous range of application, greater compatibility with computer aided cushion design, and a sizeable reduction in the number of drop tests required to generate new cushion performance data.