Coupled thermomechanical simulation of the polymer die drawing process

Abstract

An analysis of the polymer die drawing process using full thermomechanically coupled finite element (FE) modelling is described. Strain rate and temperature dependent stress—strain data for polyoxymethylene (POM) have been obtained from uniaxial tensile tests and utilized in the numerical simulations. The FE model has been validated against die drawing experiments, and both refute the previously held assumption that ‘free’ drawing commences within the die as a result of separation of the polymer from the die wall prior to exit. Simulations have been employed using the fully validated model to study the influence of process parameters such as die half-angle, area reduction, die wall friction and drawing speed on the draw loads and the amount of free tensile drawing that takes place outside the die.

Keywords

oriented polymers finite element analysis die drawing

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