INVESTIGATION OF CORRUGATED CARDBOARD FOR VIBRATION ISOLATION

Abstract

Vibration isolation is a common approach to reduce the undesired vibration of a dynamic system from its surrounding. The common material used for the vibration isolator is rubber (for example) which is known to be environmentally unfriendly. This thesis presents a study on the use of corrugated cardboard for the vibration isolator, which is known to be a highly environment-friendly material. The focus of the study is on understanding and modeling of stiffness and damping of cardboard when it or its system (several cardboards) is used for isolating the vibration coming from the vertical direction of cardboard.

In this thesis, a study is presented of finite element modeling of stiffness of corrugated cardboard in its vertical direction with the aim of overcoming two major shortcomings in modeling in the current literature: (1) the width effect is neglected even for cardboard with its width greater than length and (2) the non-linear constitutive relation is not accurately determined. Indeed, it is likely that these shortcomings are responsible for inaccuracy with the models in the current literature to predict the stiffness and peak load. Further, a test bed was set up for the measurement of damping of cardboards in this study. This thesis also presents an application of the theoretic development in the stiffness and damping of corrugated cardboard to design an isolator for the vacuum pump at Canadian Light Source.

Several conclusions are drawn from this study: (1) modeling with consideration of the width effect and non-linear constitutive relation is necessary to improve the accuracy of prediction of stiffness of cardboard; (2) set up for the measurement of damping of cardboard is accurate; and (3) cardboard systems are feasible for vibration isolation in terms of the reduction of amplitude of vibration.

The contribution of this thesis includes: (1) providing a finite element method for modeling of corrugated cardboards which have a complex non-linear constitutive relation, variable contact configuration, and 3D geometrical effect and (2) providing the feasibility of proving that corrugated cardboard can be used for vibration isolation.