Learning Forum

[hayess]

Could we get some direction on workflow for this thermal solution? This is a single cavity conformally cooled injection mold. The cover and ejector blocks are DIN 1.2709 steel (assigned as default). The water temperature for all 4 waterlines is 55°F. The melt temperature of the cavity (TPU) and runner is 360°F. We have fluid flow values but for this case we’re assuming static. We need to establish a baseline result and then we’ll iterate/optimize.

The tutorials have been very helpful but would greatly appreciate guidance.

Screen shot and file attached.

Best regards,

Scott Hayes

Pliant Plastics Corp.

Spring Lake, MI 

(616) 850-2445

[Brian Bueno]

shayes1

There doesn't appear to be a file attached.  Please be aware that any attachments will be public.

[hayess]

Thanks Brian, The file is about 3M, could we send you the file direct?

[Brian Bueno]

shayes1

This analysis is approaching the limitations of Discovery Live in some aspects.

1. The thermal analysis only accepts solid materials by default.  We can get around this by setting the State for Water to Solid in the material properties.  The thermal properties for the material remain the same.
    
2. It's not possible to define fluid flow in a thermal analysis, or calculate the thermal effects of fluid flow on a solid body in Discovery Live.  Heat transfer will only go from the solid body at constant temperature or heat flow to the fluid.
    
3. A steady state thermal analysis will only allow constant boundary conditions such as temperature, heat flow, etc.  This won't work to show cooling, as the cavity and runner will always be at 360 F.

I think the best approach here would be to run this as a transient analysis, as you will be able to specify initial temperatures for the bodies.  Assign an initial temperature of 360 F to the Cavity and Runner.  Assign an initial/constant temperature of 55 F to the water lines.  There won't be any simulation of the fluid flow, so you will have to choose between an initial temperature that's heating up, or a constant temperature if there will be prolonged flow through the water lines at a constant 55 F.  Leave the ambient temperature at 68 F.  

You can specify an end time and adjust the fidelity as needed.  My analysis reached a steady state temperature after a reported ~560s.

This should give you a preliminary idea of the thermal behavior of the model.

[hayess]

Hi Brian, thanks for the helpful input and suggestions. In transient, when we assign initial temps. for runner and cavity the other structured parts are also changing to that temperature. When we activate the part or set as simulation body the same thing is happening. Any thoughts?

[hayess]

Hi Brian, after webex call we updated NVIDIA and Intel HD graphics drivers on Lenovo W540. We ran the same thermal transient program as before in Discovery and got this error. We're also going to send along the email the Intel system report after the update to you. 

[Brian Bueno]

shayes1 

Were you able to disable that Intel graphics device from the Windows Device Manger?  I seem to vaguely recall an issue in the past that was resolved either by shutting down the Intel control panel menu that appears in the right mouse options from the desktop, or by disabling the Intel hardware entirely.

When you run dxdiag.exe now, does the NVIDIA hardware show up, or is it still missing?

[hayess]

Our IT admin. disabled the Intel HD driver and pulled from NVIDIA only - no luck. It looks like Intel isn't supporting the HD drivers for Windows7 now and we're moving to 10 in a few weeks. Good new though, we simplified/reduced the assembly to a cavity block and two water lines and ran it in transient like you suggested and magic! Thanks again for you help and follow up.

[Brian Bueno]

shayes1

That's good to hear.  I suspect that once you move to Windows 10 the performance will improve.