A piece of corrugated paperboard, sprinkled with tea dust and placed on a large speaker: shown before testing (left), and after being exposed to vibrations of a particular resonant frequency (right). (Images: A. Ballance)
PhD student Celia Kueh, from the Engineering Department at Waikato University, believes a better understanding of the properties of corrugated paperboard, or cardboard, could improve packaging design. She is looking at the effects of humidity and box design on the failure point of corrugated cardboard boxes, and is developing computer models to predict failure loads. She shows Alison Ballance how she is using resonant frequencies to understand the properties of flat paperboard, and explains how this information will be used to improve her computer models.