Analytical post-buckling model of corrugated board panels using digital image correlation measurements

The optimisation of board packages often rely on their load bearing capacity. Then it seems attractive to measure how such thin-walled structures deform using for instance kinematic field measurement techniques, and to incorporate, at least partially, the gained kinematic information within mechanical models. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) can provide a vivid description of the buckling of box panels, e.g. during box compression tests. Therefore, we propose an analytical plate model to predict the elastic post-buckling behaviour of corrugated board box panels where the kinematic boundary conditions emanate from DIC measurements. Comparing experimental and calculated strain fields on the outer liner of board panels as well as box compression force lend some confidence to the model. Further results reveal the heterogeneity of in-plane forces, bending and twisting moments the box panels have to withstand as well as strain fields in usually inaccessible regions of the panels such as the inner liner. Thereby an improvement of the structure of box panels can be envisaged.