Experimental investigation on bending fatigue failure of corrugated paperboard

A series of 3-point bending fatigue tests were conducted to investigate the bending fatigue behaviour of flute type B and C corrugated paperboard samples under cyclic loading. The S-N curve was obtained. The fatigue failure of corrugated paperboard may be described by both Basquin-type and exponential-type S-N curves; however, the exponential-type S-N curve is more appropriate. The stiffness is gradually degraded with almost same energy dissipation in most stress cycles, but it decreases abruptly with the enlarged energy dissipation when the testing cycle is very close to the ultimate cycles of fatigue failure. The corrugated board deforms constantly under the action of cyclic loading, and no visible crack appears. The fatigue failure modes and mechanisms are same for the corrugated boards with B-flute and C-flute; however, the S-N curve of corrugated board is closely related to the flute structure. The results obtained in this paper may be applied to the dynamic design and accelerated vibration test of stacked corrugated boxes.