Coupled Temperature-Displacement Modelling of Injection Stretch Blow Moulding of PET bottles using Buckley Model

This study presents a fully coupled temperature–displacement finite element modelling of the injection stretch-blow moulding (ISBM) process of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles using ABAQUS with a view to optimising the process conditions. A physically-based material model (Buckley model) was used to predict the mechanical behaviour of PET at temperatures slightly above its glass transition temperature. A model incorporating heat transfer between the stretch rod, the preform and the mould was built using axisymmetric solid elements. Extensive finite element analyses were carried out to predict the deformation, the distribution and history of strain and temperature during ISBM of a 20 g–330 ml bottle, which was made in an in situ test on a Sidel SB06 machine. Comparisons of numerical results with the measurements demonstrate that the model can satisfactorily model the sidewall thickness and material distributions. It is also shown that significant non-linear differentials exist in temperature and strain in both bottle thickness and length directions during the process. This justifies the employment of a volume approach to accurately predict the final mechanical properties of the bottles governed by the orientation and crystallinity which are highly temperature and strain dependent.

Allocating transmission loss to loads and generators through complex power flow tracing

This paper presents a new method for complex power flow tracing that can be used for allocating the transmission loss to loads or generators. Two algorithms for upstream tracing (UST) and downstream tracing (DST) of the complex power are introduced. UST algorithm traces the complex power extracted by loads back to source nodes and assigns a fraction of the complex power flow through each line to each load. DST algorithm traces the output of the generators down to the sink nodes determining the contributions of each generator to the complex power flow and losses through each line. While doing so, active- and reactive-power flows as well as complex losses are considered simultaneously, not separately as most of the available methods do. Transmission losses are taken into consideration during power flow tracing. Unbundling line losses are carried out using an equation, which has a physical basis, and considers the coupling between active- and reactive-power flows as well as the cross effects of active and reactive powers on active and reactive losses. The tracing algorithms introduced can be considered direct to a good extent, as there is no need for exhaustive search to determine the flow paths as these are determined in a systematic way during the course of tracing. Results of application of the proposed method are also presented.