Stress Analysis of Different Shaped Holes on a Packaging Material

Abstract: In packaging industries, the demand for usage of Low Density Poly Ethylene foil is of profound interest. In the past, research was carried out on finite and infinite plates with varying crack lengths but having constant crack width. In this thesis, a detailed analysis on crack initiation is carried out on finite plates by varying width of the hole. The hole shapes for stress analysis include circle, ellipse and rectangular notch. Initially, maximum stress is found out using Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) theory and compared with Finite element method (FEM) results. Secondly using Elastic Plastic Fracture Mechanics theory (EPFM), critical stress and geometric function are evaluated theoretically by Modified Strip Yield Model (MSYM) and numerically by ABAQUS. Finally, a tensile test is conducted to validate the theoretical and numerical results.  By varying the width of the hole, a study on the parameters like critical stress, geometric function is presented. A conclusion is drawn that the effect of hole width should be considered when calculating fracture parameters.