Investigation on impact protection effectiveness of cushioning material in packaging container under lateral constraint condition

A theoretical model is proposed to evaluate the impact protection effectiveness of a porous cushioning material in a packaging container under the lateral constraint condition. An acceleration-displacement equation of the protected product in the packaging container is derived. The reliability of the equation is validated by numerical simulation. Subsequently, the equation is applied to analyse the effect of strain rate on impact protection effectiveness of three polymer foams under the lateral constraint condition, and to design the thicknesses of cushioning materials in the packaging container.