ABSTRACT The transition from fossil‐based plastics to cellulose‐based materials in food packaging requires process‐aware evaluation, because manufacturability directly affects achievable geometry, scrap rates, and energy demand. This paper presents an experimentally validated finite element model of the deep‐drawing process for a multilayer Chemi Thermo Mechanical Pulp (CTMP) paperboard tray. The material was characterized through ISO‐compliant uniaxial tensile tests spanning anisotropic directions (MD/CD) and controlled thermo‐hygrometric conditions (ambient vs 60°C; dry vs immersed). A calibrated elasto‐plastic model coupled with ductile damage and element deletion was implemented in Abaqus/Explicit, and a parametric forming campaign was explored via a design of experiments. A dedicated deep‐drawing prototype featuring controlled tooling and load acquisition was used to validate the numerical predictions. Agreement between experiments and simulations is demonstrated both qualitatively—wrinkle morphology and location, and failure initiation areas—and quantitatively through force–displacement curve comparison. The validated model identifies a feasible forming window and a reference configuration achieving approximately 40 mm forming depth with a paper thickness of 0.33 mm while maintaining rim stability. These results establish a reliable digital representation of the deep drawing process that can be leveraged in subsequent work to generate physically consistent inventories for process‐integrated environmental assessment.
Felaco et al. (Wed,) studied this question.