PaperFEM

PaperFEMTM is a set of material models that accurately describe the complex behavior of paper, paperboard and corrugated board. The software is a useful tool for everyone involved in packaging design and design of manufacturing tools for the packaging industry. The models are available as commercial licenses for the FE software ABAQUS and can be altered for other FE software upon request.

A-Dev helps also makes consulting services with PaperFEM. With our help the packaging industry can:

Short description of the model

For the presentation below the model is calibrated for, and compared with, a paperboard with a grammage of 280 g/m2. The models are however general and they have, so far, been able to accurately describe all types of paper materials (and even other types of materials, such as composites).The three principal directions in paper are called Machine direction (MD), Cross direction (CD) and Z-direction (ZD). The directions are explained in figure 1.


Figure 1. Principal directions of paper, related to the paper roll.

The behavior of the model in the plane of the paper is shown in figure 2. In this figure the model is tested with six different load cases, three in tension and three in compression. The model is tested in MD, CD and 45 degrees angle between CD and MD. The computer simulations, in blue, are compared with experiments, in black.

The behavior in tension in the thickness direction (ZD) of paperboard is shown in figure 3a and the behavior in compression is shown in figure 3b.

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Figure 2. Behavior in the plane of the paperboard, compared with experiments. In one of the simulations, CD-tension, an unloading and loading is performed in order to show the elastic and inelastic behavior of the model. Reference for experiments: Xia, Q. S. (2002). Mechanics of inelastic deformation and delamination in paperboard. PhD thesis, Massachusetts institute of technology.

Figure 3a. Subsequent loading and unloading of paperboard in ZD compression. Reference for experiment: Stenberg, N. (2004). Out-of-plane shear of paperboard under high compressive loads. Journal of Pulp and Paper Science, 30(1):22-28.

Figure 3b. Subsequent loading and unloading of paperboard in ZD tension. Reference for experiment: Stenberg, N. (2004). Out-of-plane shear of paperboard under high compressive loads. Journal of Pulp and Paper Science, 30(1):22-28.

Applications

PaperFEM can be used for a variety of applications with accurate results. Trying new designs of packages, evaluating different paperboards and evaluate manufacturing processes. The simulations in figure 4 represent a few applications: top (stacking) load of package, grip stiffness of package and creasing and folding of paperboard/corrugated board.





Figure 4. Small examples of operations that accurately can be modeled with PaperFEM™. Two simulations of converting processes are shown at the top and two simulations on final products are shown at the bottom.