Local buckling and collapse of corrugated board under biaxial stress

Abstract

The collapse mechanism of biaxially loaded corrugated board cylinders with the corrugations parallel to the cylinder axis has been experimentally examined. Axial compression, torque, external pressure and combinations thereof were examined. The cylinder dimensions were sized to avoid global buckling prior to failure of the material using finite element analysis (FE). Failure analysis of the board was based on the stress state in the facings in conjunction with a combined stress failure criterion (Tsai-Wu quadratic criterion). For cylinders under compression parallel to the corrugations, local buckling was observed but did not influence the collapse load. For biaxial load cases involving substantial shear and compression perpendicular to the corrugations, the experimental collapse stresses were substantially below predictions based on stresses in the facings in conjunction with the failure criterion. Such a discrepancy is explained by the tendency of the facings to buckle locally before material failure. Consequently, local buckling appears to govern failure of corrugated board when there are large transverse normal and shear stresses acting.