Shock spectra and damage boundary curves for non-linear package cushioning systems

Abstract

This paper suggests a general approach for obtaining shock spectra and damage boundary curves for cushioning packaging systems. This approach can treat both linear and non-linear cushioning systems such as cubic, tangent and hyperbolic tangent systems. Corresponding software has been developed for analysing different cushioning systems, and the shock spectra and the damage boundary curves are given for a tangent non-linear cushioning system under the action of a rectangular, half-sine, terminal-peak saw-tooth and initial-peak saw-tooth pulse, respectively. It is worth noting that the shock spectrum is affected not only by the damping parameter but also by the dimensionless pulse peak, and that both the damping parameter and the dimensionless fragility also influence the damage boundary curve. These are important features of non-linear cushioning system. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.