School of Architectural, Civil

EMY4410 Final Year Project

Project Title: Investigation of the dynamic behaviour of stacked shipping units during transport.

Supervisors: Michael Sek & Vincent Rouillard Students: Shayne Crawford , Aaron Walker

Background. Most mechanical systems will exhibit resonances when subjected to vibrational inputs. In package systems, vibrations during transport can incite considerable responses. These mechanical resonances can result in large dynamic stresses and eventually in damage or failure of the package, product or one of its components (critical elements). These include premature collapse of paperboard boxes, bruising of horticultural produce, scuffing of glass bottles and vibration induced fatigue of packaged products. Protective packaging design is often primarily aimed at reducing the effects of shocks and drops on the packaged product and the consequences of vibrational loading and the excitation of resonances are frequently treated as an afterthought. This entails checking for resonances by subjecting the packaged product to a range of artificially generated vibration excitation regimes which aim at reproducing the range of frequencies that is expected to be encountered during its service life. Although these experimental techniques can be relatively easily applied to single shipping units, the behaviour of stacked shipping units is significantly more complex and not well understood.

Project Aim. The main aim of the project is to develop numerical models capable of simulating the dynamic response of stacked shipping units when subjected to various vertical vibrational excitations regimes. The model will also include the effects of strapping with particular focus on determining optimum strapping tension.

Tasks.  Develop and construct artificial package prototypes for experimental validation.  Develop individual numerical models the mechanical properties of the artificial prototypes  Develop numerical models of the stacked artificial prototypes including elastic strap or retaining sytems.  Simulate and predict the stack response for various vertical vibrational inputs  Design and undertake experiments aimed at validating the numerical model.

Resources  Matlab® / Simulink® simulation software – full licence available.  ME-Scope® Operational Deflection Shape software - licence available.  ADAMS® mechanical simulation software  PC – available in Mechanics Lab.  Programmable vibration simulation system: State-of-the-art facility available in Mechanics Lab.  Dynamic force sensors, accelerometers and charge amplifiers – Available in Mechanics Lab.  Data acquisition system - Available in Mechanics Lab.  Up to $1,000 for miscellaneous hardware.