Effect of strain rate on cushioning properties of molded pulp products

•The effects of strain rate of molded pulp products are remarkable.•The yield stress at a drop height of 80 cm increases 59.4%.•The energy absorption at a drop height of 80 cm increases 85.4%.•Two obvious buckling processes occur.•The comparison between the finite element analysis and experiment is made.

Molded pulp product is widely used in distribution chains as a cushioning packaging of industrial products due to its favorable cushioning capability. How to evaluate the cushioning capability of molded pulp product is the key issue many scholars are interesting in. The load carrying capacity and energy absorbing of the molded pulp products used in the cushion packaging of mobile phones both in the static compression and dynamic impact were investigated in this paper by applying the experiment and finite element analysis. The static compression was conducted with the compression speed of 12 mm/min corresponding to the nominal strain rate 3.8 × 10−3 s−1, and the dynamic impact tests were conducted with three drop heights of 25, 50 and 80 cm corresponding respectively to the nominal strain rates 4.2 × 101, 6.0 × 101 and 7.5 × 101 s−1. The high speed camera was used to record the dynamic impact process and deformation. The finite element model of molded pulp product was built, and the stress and displacement nephograms, the dynamic impact deformation process, the load–displacement curve and the energy absorption curve of the molded pulp product were archived. The comparison between the finite element analysis and the experiment was made. The load–displacement curve of the finite element analysis is in agreement with that of the experiment in the static compression, and the energy absorption curves of the finite element analysis with different nominal strain rates are in agreement with that of the experiment in the area of the point of optimum energy absorption. However, a growing gap between the finite element analysis and the experiment appears with the nominal strain rate increasing, which may be induced by the use of the static stress–strain curve of the material in the finite element analysis of dynamic impact. The molded pulp product experiences the process from structural deformation, local stress concentration, first local buckling, redistribution of stress, global buckling, to structural dilapidation and densification. Two obvious buckling processes occur because of its complicated structure and two layers in structure. However, some additional local buckling also occur before the global buckling of structure in the case of dynamic impact with higher nominal strain rate. The deformation processes of molded pulp product from the finite element analysis and the experiment recorded by high-speed camera are coincident. With the nominal strain rate increasing, the yield stress of molded pulp product increases obviously, and the shoulder point of the energy absorption curve moves upward to the right. The yield stress under the dynamic impact at a drop height of 80 cm increases 59.4% compared with that under the static compression, and the corresponding optimum energy absorption increases 85.4%. The effects of strain rate on the load carrying capacity and the energy absorption of molded pulp product are remarkable. The results can be applied to the design of molded pulp products.

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