Compressive strength of edge-loaded corrugated board panels

Postbuckling strength of simply supported corrugated board panels subjected to edge compressive loading has been studied experimentally using a specially developed test fixture. Although the load versus out-of-plane displacement response was highly sensitive to the presence of initial imperfections in the panels, the collapse loads did not vary much, which is attributed to the stable postbuckling behavior of the plates. Thin plates collapsed at nearly twice the buckling load, while thick panels collapsed at loads below the elastic critical buckling load. Local buckling of the facing on the concave side of the buckled plate was observed at load levels close to the collapse load. The plate collapse was triggered by compressive failure of the facings that initiated at the unloaded edges. A simplified design analysis was derived based on approximate postbuckling analysis and compared with an existing design formula for corrugated board panels and boxes.