A Hybrid Modelling Approach to Predict the Energetic Behavior of Corrugated Pipe Manufacturing Process
Sprache des Vortragstitels:
Englisch
Original Tagungtitel:
European Regional Meeting of the Polymer Processing Society, PPS-2024
Sprache des Tagungstitel:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
Corrugated plastics pipes offer both higher stiffness and flexibility, while
simultaneously requiring less material than rigid pipes. Rising commodity prices force
pipe manufacturers to produce their high-quality corrugated pipes with less material
input. Evidently, the pipe temperature in conjunction with the wall thickness and its
distribution substantially impact the mechanical properties in product use. Therefore,
optimizing the wall thickness distribution as well as the energy flow while corrugating
step, particularly the cooling of the corrugated pipe, plays a crucial role in corrugator
design. In a corrugator, after initial pipe extrusion, the grooves and ridges on the outer
surface of the soft pipe are formed by a series of moving cooled mold blocks with a
caterpillar-like movement and supported by vacuum from outside and pressurized air
from inside.
Modeling and simulating thermal energy flow during the corrugated pipe extrusion
steps is a fundamental preliminary stage in the development of effective cooling
solutions for the corrugator. Therefore, a hybrid modelling approach is employed in this
research work, combining classical numerical modelling with ANSYS Polyflow ?
Mechanical coupling and heuristic-based data modeling. Symbolic regression models
are developed based on a comprehensive parametric design study predicting the cycle
time for the inflation process, the demolding temperature of the pipe and the dissipated
energy in the entire pipe cooling process each of for a multitude of corrugated pipe
designs. These models may be used for structural analysis of pipes and mold block
design, as well as optimization of (i) wall thickness distribution, (ii) cooling of corrugated
pipes, and (iii) corrugator performance. In general, reducing material need and
processing energy without losing mechanical performance saves resources and
fosters sustainability of corrugated pipes.
Forschungs-