Analysis of Paperboard Performance using Digital Image Correlation

Abstract: The performance of paperboard materials in packaging application has been investigated and evaluated for a long time. This is because it plays a decisive role for product protection and decoration in packaging applications. Potential damages during transportation sometimes affect the consistency of the performance. Therefore, the capability of the material to resist these external disturbances was of interest. A multiply paperboard was chosen as the experimental material. The analysis conducted in this thesis aimed to reveal the tensile behavior in the cross-machine direction (CD) of the material against various kinds of local or global changes. The changes included global and local climate variations, cutouts, and regional weakening and strengthening, which were applied during the intervals between preloading and reloading. The digital image correlation (DIC) analysis computed the time-varying strain fields from the gray level information contained in the recorded videos of loading processes.  The generated strain fields were imported to post analysis. Comparison between comparable stages (two stages with the same average strain value from different loading sections) was considered as the scheme of isolating the influences of the changes and investigating them individually. The cosine image similarity method and the eigenface algorithm were used to validate this scheme, while the directional average calculation and the strain field compensation method were introduced to realize the isolation. The differences between the front and back outer plies of the paperboard sheets were detected as individual. Moreover, both global and local climate changes were affecting the strain distributions of the specimens proportionally on account of the moisture ratio within the material. In addition, the invisible mechanical weakening and strengthening were captured evidently with the analysis, which caused strain concentrations due to the uneven distribution of expansion capability. The relaxation and bending in unloading processes were two of the primary disturbing factors within all the deformed specimens, which were related to time and bending direction, correspondingly.