Bottle Drop Test

Methods Development and Technology
Transfer Services

Reducing the weight in consumer product containers can save producers millions of dollars in material costs each year. Of course, a lighter container must still perform correctly during manufacturing, filling, capping, possible sterilizing, shipping, warehousing, and use by the consumer, including surviving container drop without failure or leaking when filled.

To help quantify the performance of potential lightweight container design for a major consumer product manufacturer, SIMULIA engineers using the Abaqus FEA product suite developed a general analysis methodology for drop simulations. Similar simulations have been developed for drop of electronic consumer products such as cellular phones and laptops, rigid shipping containers, and metal beverage cans (including the effects of pressurization).

The application focused on a plastic container partially filled with fluid. The analysis objectives were to:

• Simulate the behavior of the container during drop from various heights, fill ratios, and angles.
  
• Predict and prevent container rupture on impact.

The engineering challenges included:

• A highly dynamic response with large deformations.
   
• Advanced materials modeling: the fluid is modeled with equation of state models; the container as high-density polyethylene.
   
• An evolving complex contact state due to fluid sloshing and possible rupture.

One such example, the drop of a one gallon polyethylene plastic water bottle from a height of 36", is shown here. The drop simulation showed that failure began from a point above the bottom corner of the container---not at the corner itself---where the thickness changed. In addition, the failure occurs during rebound, not at the moment of maximum impact before rebound. Both findings calibrated well with high-speed videotape of the drop event and are useful to the container designer.