New strength metrics for containerboards: influences of basic papermaking factors

Abstract

Abstract In end-use, containerboard is subjected to a variety of loading histories, such as seconds of loading/unloading, hours of vibration, days of creep load. The fundamental question is whether the commonly measured static strength represents “strength” under these conditions. Another question is, since those time-dependent failures are notoriously variable, how to describe the probabilistic aspect. This study concerns the characterisation of these different facets of “strength”. In our earlier work, we have investigated the theoretical framework for time-dependent, probabilistic failures, and identified three material parameters: (1) characteristic strength, S c {S_{c}} , representing short-term strength, (2) brittleness/durability parameter, ρ, and (3) reliability parameter, β. We have also developed a new method that allows us to determine all these parameters much faster than typical creep tests. Using the new method, we have started investigating effects of basic papermaking variables on the new material parameters. Among the samples tested, the parameter ρ varied from 20 to 50, and β from 0.5 to 1.0. This suggests that, even within the current papermaking practice, there is a wide operating window to tune these new material parameters. The future work is, therefore, to find specific manufacturing variables that can systematically change these new material parameters.