Defect sensitivity and strength of paperboard in out-of-plane tension and shear

This paper considers the effects of defects in the form of cracks on the failure properties in the thickness direction of multilayered board. The objective was to study how the peak stress value changes with various crack lengths under various load conditions. Specimens with manufactured cracks cut parallel to the machine-direction-cross-machine-direction plane were glued in the Arcan device and tested under pure tensile stress and mixed shear-tensile stress. The lower peak out-of-plane tensile stress measured in damaged samples indicates a defect sensitivity in multilayered board. The results for one type of board show that the loss in tensile strength is independent of the crack length. On the other hand, mixed shear and tensile stress behaviour does not appear to be influenced by the presence of cracks.