Optimization of the Thickness of PET Bottles during Stretch Blow Molding by Using a Mesh-free (Numerical) Method

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Abstract
The stretch-blow molding process of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles generates some important modifications in the mechanical properties of the material. Considering, the process temperature (T > Tg) that is usually used, the material exhibits a very high viscosity and involves a strain hardening effect associated with the microstructure evolution. An anisotropic viscoplastic model coupled with induced properties, identified from experimental results of uniaxial and biaxial tensile tests previously published by Chevalier and Marco (2006), is presented in a first part of the paper. Secondly, we perform a numerical simulation to simulate the free inflation of a preform under an internal pressure with different parameters. Because the final strains are up to 300 to 400%, it generates important distortion of node distribution and we chose to use the mesh-free Constrained Natural Elements Method (C-NEM) for numerical simulation. The final goal is to use these simulations in order to fit the best parameter set leading to a quasi-homogeneous distribution of the thickness along the bottle. Homogeneous thickness implies homogeneous biaxial stretching and more uniform induced properties for the final bottle and this is an important industrial goal.

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