Influence of Relative Humidity on Energy Absorption of Honeycomb Paperboard

Abstract

Environmental factors especially relative humidity play an important role on the energy absorption performance of honeycomb paperboard. The energy absorption characteristics and system theories of energy absorption diagrams containing relative humidity factor of honeycomb paperboard are investigated. Energy absorption diagrams were constructed based on practical static compression test and MATLAB simulation at four relative humidity conditions (30%, 50%, 70% and 90%). A good agreement is achieved between theoretical and experimental energy absorption curves. Energy absorption diagrams both achieved by the experiments and the mathematical models show that the increase of thickness-to-length ratios, t/l, of paper honeycomb core or the decrease of relative humidity resulted in the increase of the compression energy absorption capability. The introduction of environmental factor such as relative humidity can help to optimize the structures of paper honeycomb sandwiches.