ANÁLISIS Y OPTIMIZACIÓN DE TÉCNICAS DE MALLADO PARA SIMULACIONES CFD DE MATRICES DE EXTRUSIÓN DE ELASTÓMEROS

Abstract

Rubber profile manufacturers are aiming to develop CFD models of their extrusion dies to optimize die design. Real extrusion dies are characterized by an intricate geometry derived from the elaborated profiles demanded by automotive industry as well as the turning and narrowing ducts in dies. To obtain well performing simulations, the major challenge remains in developing an adequate mesh for these complex geometries without an important increase of the computational cost. This communication deals with the most frequent drawbacks that arise when meshing real extrusion dies. Different meshing techniques for creating CFD models are compared in suitability. On one hand, we use different elements with distinct shape and of different interpolating polynomial order, and in the other hand we vary the global number of elements and the number of elements per each region. The results show that it is critical to use at least three or four elements for the smallest regions of the domain for obtaining reliable results. Regarding meshing techniques, hexahedral meshes achieve the same degree of accuracy as the tetrahedral ones with a smaller number of elements or with interpolating polynomial of less order. Keywords: Rubber extrusion dies, CFD; extrusion process; rubber compound; meshing techniques.