Determination of drop-impact resistance of plastic bottles using computer aided engineering

Abstract

ASTM D2463 discusses the standard test method for drop impact resistance of blow-molded thermoplastic containers using procedures to determine the mean failure height and the standard deviation of the distribution. Unfortunately, costly prototypes have to be created before the drop impact test can be conducted. The MSC Dytran program was used with finite element simulation of the drop impact test of plastic bottles to determine the failure height for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles. The finite element results were verified using experimental results obtained using the test method prescribed in ASTM D2463. It was found that the finite element simulation obtained accurate results. The failure heights for the PET and HDPE bottles were 4.53 ± 0.41 m and 4.65 ± 0.81 m, respectively. The errors in the failure height obtained from the FE simulation were less than 9.27% for the PET bottle and 5.59% for the HDPE bottle.