1.1. Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the menu structure in Polydata and Workbench and
that you have solved or read 2.5D Axisymmetric Extrusion (p. ?). Some steps in the setup procedure
will not be shown explicitly.
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
To reduce the computational run time, and utilizing the symmetric nature of the blister, only one quarter
of the blister/mold is modeled, Figure 1.1: Thermoforming of a Blister, Sheet (blue) and Mold (red) (p. 1).
From a geometric point of view, the initial (1/4) film has the following dimensions:
Length = 15 mm
Width = 5 mm
Dimensions are intentionally given in millimeters due to the small size of the object. The simulation will be
built around the system of units consisting of millimeters, grams and seconds.
The thickness compared to the length/width of the blister is rather small. This allows for the use of the
membrane (shell) element, which is suited for the analysis of 3D blow molding and thermoforming
simulations. The use of the membrane element is presently restricted to time-dependent flows and is
combined with Lagrangian representation (each mesh node is a material point). Node displacement
results from the time integration of nodal velocity.
The finite element mesh and the boundary conditions are displayed in Figure 1.2: Finite Element Mesh,
Subdomains and Boundary Sets (p. 3). A 3D surface mesh has been generated for both the mold and
the film. The most important aspect is the proper description of the inner mold surfaces that will shape
the blister.
Viscosity = 105
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Problem Description
As seen in Figure 1.2: Finite Element Mesh, Subdomains and Boundary Sets (p. 3), the topology involves
two subdomains:
Subdomain 1 = film
Subdomain 2 = mold
The inflation pressure will be defined on the subdomain representing the film (Subdomain 1).
An important new concept is introduced in this tutorial: contact with a mold. Typically, two cases may
be encountered:
The moving mold comes in contact with the shell and the shell acquires the mold velocity.
The shell is inflated according to a certain rate and eventually comes into contact with the mold, acquiring
its shape.
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
1.3. Preparation
To prepare for running this tutorial:
Note
If you do not have a User Name and Password, you can register by clicking Customer
Registration on the Log In page.
4. Narrow the results by using the filter on the left side of the page.
7. Unzip the 3D-Thermo-Blister_R150.zip file you have downloaded to your working folder.
8. Start Workbench from Start All Programs ANSYS 15.0 Workbench 15.0.
2. Save the ANSYS Workbench project using File Save, entering blister as the name of the project.
When Polydata starts, the Create a new task menu item is highlighted, and the geometry for the
problem is displayed in the Graphics Display window.
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Step 2: Models
F.E.M. task
Time-dependent problem(s)
2D shell geometry
Define molds
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
b. Click Upper level menu at the top of the Domain of the mold menu.
Contact conditions
Mold motion
A small panel opens, asking you to specify the type of mold motion.
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Step 2: Models
Enter 1 as the New value to impose a translation velocity, and click OK.
b. Click the EVOL button at the top of the Polydata menu to enable evolution inputs.
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
Click OK to accept the default value of 0 for the New value of velocity-x.
Polydata asks you to the specify the time dependence of the x-velocity. Click Upper level
menu, as there is no velocity in the x-direction.
Click OK to accept the default value of 0 for the New value of velocity-y, and click Upper
level menu, as there is no velocity in the y-direction.
Enter 10 mm/s for the New value of velocity-z and click OK.
v. Define the coordinate pairs (a,b) and (c,d) for the points that define the ramp function.
vi. In a similar manner, set the values for b, c, and d to 1.0, 0.103, and 0, respectively.
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Step 3: Definition of a Sub-task
Figure 1.3: Ramp Function for Mold Velocity (p. 9) shows the ramp function you just defined.
vii. Click the EVOL button at the top of the menu to disable evolution inputs.
viii. Click Upper level menu three times to return to the F.E.M. Task 1 menu.
Create a sub-task
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
b. Click Upper level menu button at the top of the Domain of the sub-task menu.
b. Select Zero wall velocity (vn=vs=0) along Boundary 3 and click Modify.
iii. Click Upper level menu to continue specifying flow boundary conditions.
c. Select Zero wall velocity (vn=vs=0) along Boundary 4 and click Modify.
iii. Click Upper level menu to return to the Flow boundary conditions menu.
d. Click Inflation pressure imposed at the bottom of the Flow boundary conditions menu.
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Step 3: Definition of a Sub-task
f. Click the EVOL button at the top of the Polydata menu to enable evolution inputs.
ii. Click Modify the value of a, and enter 0.1 as the New value.
iii. In a similar manner, set constants b, c, and d to 0, 0.11, and 1.0, respectively.
Figure 1.4: Ramp Function for Pressure (p. 11) shows the ramp function you just defined.
Click the EVOL button at the top of the Polydata menu to disable evolution inputs.
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
Define contacts
The Modification of a contact problem menu will open with the Select a contact wall menu
item highlighted.
i. Magnify the view of the mold to ensure that you can see the darts that will be displayed.
Darts will be displayed in the Graphics Display window, as shown in the following figure.
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Step 3: Definition of a Sub-task
iii. Click No in the panel that opens, to specify that the darts are not pointing towards the mold
body.
If the direction of the darts is not clear to you, you can close the panel, rotate the view and/or
change the magnification, click Specify mold side / cavity side again, and then answer
the question appropriately.
A warning panel opens, saying that velocity prediction must be disabled, and that the modification
has automatically been done.
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
Click OK.
Define layers
The blister menu will open with the Material data menu item highlighted.
Material Data
iv. Click Upper level menu twice to continue with material data specification.
v. Click Density.
vii. Click Upper level menu to continue with the material data specification.
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Step 4: Create Sub-tasks for Postprocessing
Select Inertia will be taken into account and click Upper level menu to continue with
material data specification.
xi. Click Upper level menu twice to return to the blister menu.
Initial thickness
i. Click Constant.
ii. Click Upper level menu four times to return to the F.E.M. Task 1 menu.
Create a sub-task
Click No in the panel that opens asking if you want to copy the data of an existing sub-task.
a. Click Postprocessor.
Enter Mass of product as the New value in the panel that asks for the title of the sub-
task and click OK.
Click OK in the dialog box that opens saying that the calculation will be performed on Subdo-
main 1.
c. Confirm that the Density of layer [blister] is set to 1.00E-03, and click Upper level menu.
The plane is calculated by the following equation (which is displayed at the top of the Restric-
tion of Layers by cutting planes menu).
(1.1)
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
Create a sub-task
Click No in the panel that opens asking if you want to copy the data of an existing sub-task.
a. Click Postprocessor.
Enter Permeability of product as the New value in the panel that asks for the title
of the sub-task and click OK.
Click OK in the dialog box that opens saying that the calculation will be performed on Subdo-
main 1.
c. Confirm that the Permeability of layer [blister] is set to 5.00E-12, and click Upper level menu.
See Equation 1.1 (p. 15) for more information on the coefficients.
Create a sub-task
Click No in the panel that opens asking if you want to copy the data of an existing sub-task.
a. Click Postprocessor.
Enter Volume of product as the New value in the panel that asks for the title of the sub-
task and click OK.
Click OK in the dialog box that opens saying that the calculation will be performed on Subdo-
main 1.
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Step 6: Outputs
See Equation 1.1 (p. 15) for more information on the coefficients.
f. Click Upper level menu to ignore contact with Subdomain 2 and return to F.E.M. Task 1.
Numerical parameters
9. Click Upper level menu three times to return to the top-level Polydata menu.
Outputs
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
Set to metric_mm/g/s/mA+Celsius
2. Click Upper level menu two times to return to the Outputs menu.
Output Triggering
3. Click Upper level menu twice to return to the top-level Polydata menu.
After defining your model in Polydata, save the data file. In the next step, you will have to read this data file
into Polyflow and calculate a solution.
1. Click Accept.
2. Click Continue.
This accepts the default names for graphical output files (cfx.res) that are to be saved for postpro-
cessing, and the Polyflow format results file (res).
1. Run Polyflow by right-clicking the Solution cell of the simulation and selecting Update.
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Step 8: Solution
This executes Polyflow using the data file as standard input, and writes information about the problem
description, calculations, and convergence to a listing file (polyflow.lst).
Workbench opens the View listing file panel, which displays the listing file.
b. It is a common practice to confirm that the solution proceeded as expected by looking for the
following printed at the bottom of the listing file:
The computation succeeded.
Here you can see the results of the postprocessor sub-tasks you created in Polydata. For additional in-
formation on postprocessing sub-tasks, see Step 4: Create Sub-tasks for Postprocessing (p. 15) and
Overview of Derived Quantities in the Polyflow User's Guide.
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
CFD-Post reads the solution fields that were saved to the results file.
b. In the dialog box that opens, click OK to accept the default name (Contour 1) and display the
details of Contour 1 below the Outline tree.
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Step 9: Postprocessing
ii. Select THICKNESS from the Variable drop-down list, or click the ellipsis button ( ) on the
right and select THICKNESS.
v. Click Apply.
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
a. Double-click Default Transform in the Outline tree tab, under User Locations and Plots (or right-
click Default Transform and select Edit).
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Step 9: Postprocessing
b. Disable Instancing Info From Domain under the Definition tab in the details of Default Transform.
d. Select Value from the Determine Angle From drop-down list in the Instance Definition group
box.
f. Enable Apply Reflection, and select ZX Plane from the Method drop-down list.
h. Click Apply and revise the magnification of the view to show the whole mold.
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
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Step 9: Postprocessing
c. Click Apply.
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
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Step 9: Postprocessing
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Step 9: Postprocessing
c. Select Timesteps.
d. To save the animation, expand the dialog box by clicking the button at the lower-right.
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3D Thermoforming of a Blister
ii. Click the file icon to the right and enter the path where you would like to save the animation.
Enter Thickness.wmv for the name of the file and click Save to close the Save Movie
dialog box.
iv. Click the play button, to play the animation and save it as a file.
1.13. Summary
This tutorial introduced the concept of a blow molding problem. The mold moved into contact with
the film, where a constant pressure was applied to the film. This blew the film into the mold where it
assumed the shape of the mold.
You represented the film by a shell geometry under the valid assumption that the thickness of the film
was much smaller than the other two dimensions. Polyflow linearly interpolated the process vari-
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Further Improvements
ablesthickness, velocity and position. By reporting the individual time steps to CFD-Post you were
able to view the thickness of the product as a function of time.
F.E.M. Task 1
Numerical parameters
Adaptive meshing
Modify size_min = .1
Modify size_max = 1
Modify dist_crit = .5
Modify Nstep = 4
The results are shown in Figure 1.11: Effect of Adaption on Final Mesh and Thickness Variation (p. 32).
Note how the mesh changes as the Maxdiv value increases. The results do not change very much as
a result of the adaption, which indicates that the original solution was already mesh independent.
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1.15. Appendix
The appendix contains the following topics:
1.15.1. Contact Boundary Conditions
1.15.2. Remark on the Penalty Coefficient
1.15.3. Remeshing
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Appendix
with the (moving) molds. In all forming applications (blow molding and thermoforming for example),
the definition of the contact is an important aspect, as it will eventually lead to the desired shape. The
contact involves a what and a how. The what describes the geometry of the film/sheet and the
mold surface it may get in contact with (contact problem). The how refers to other process parameters
such as a moving mold. In this case, a velocity (possibly time-dependant) must be specified for the
mold. In some cases, the material may slip along the contact wall, which can also be taken into account.
Next to these operating attributes, some numerical parameters must be specified. A geometrical algorithm
is applied for detecting the occurrence of contact, while a penalty formation is used for the treatment
of contact. A penalty coefficient ensures that a geometrical contact is detected. It should not be too
small. A coefficient is also specified in the tangential direction. If the fluid sticks along the wall, this
tangential coefficient should preferably receive the same value as the penalty coefficient. Two additional
coefficients are also needed; a tolerance on penetration accuracy and an element dilatation.
Presently, the penalty coefficient has been set to 1010, while the same value has been selected for the
coefficient along the tangential direction (slipping coefficient). The tolerance on penetration and element
dilatation equal 0.05 and 0.05 mm, respectively.
In classical thermoforming applications, such residual velocity will not produce any significant numerical
penetration of the fluid film/sheet through the mold in view of the short times involved (physically, the
thermoforming process is very fast). However, some situations may involve longer time scales such as
in the glass industry.
The question that is now raised concerns the best evaluation of the penalty coefficient. The penalty
formulation mainly establishes a balance between a force (for example: the inflation pressure, ) and
a penalty force because of contact. The penalty force is simply the product of the penalty coefficient,
, and the residual velocity of the film/sheet upon contact. The other elements of the momentum
equation can be ignored for the present consideration. Assuming a typical time scale (for example:
the simulation time), and a maximum penetration depth , a good penalty coefficient can be selected
as:
1.15.3. Remeshing
No remeshing must be specified. In the context of the membrane element, a Lagrangian representation
is applied where all mesh nodes are considered material points.
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