The work aims to take a brand of four-door refrigerator as the research object and based on the "five-step method" of cushioning packaging, optimize and improve the refrigerator packaging according to structural design and simulation analysis, so as to design a more reasonable transportation packaging scheme for large size refrigerators. Topological optimization method was used to study the optimal distribution of cushioning materials, and the optimization results were used to guide the structural design of cushion. The simulation software ANSYS Workbench was used to carry out the simulation analysis of the drop of the refrigerator packaging, and the reliability test was combined to verify the reliability of the new packaging scheme. The response acceleration peaks of surface drop, edge drop and corner drop of the packaging were 28.2g, 20.3g and 16.8g respectively, which were all less than the allowable brittleness value of 40g. The reliability of the simulation analysis was verified by comparing the data collected from the drop test and the simulation data. After optimization, the mass of the cushion was 0.46 kg, which was reduced by about 36% compared with the initial design mass of 0.72 kg, and the cost of each set of packaging materials was reduced by RMB 13.69, a decrease of about 9.8%. The method of topological optimization and finite element simulation can improve the design scheme, reduce the number of physical tests, shorten the cycle of packaging research and development, reduce the cost of packaging research and development, and provide ideas for packaging research and development in similar product engineering practice.