Zeitschrift Kunststofftechnik Journal of Plastics Technology
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Zeitschrift Kunststofftechnik Journal of Plastics Technology
Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. www.kunststofftech.com © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München Zeitschrift Kunststofftechnik 4Autor Titel (gegebenenfalls gekürzt) Journal of Plastics Technology www.kunststofftech.com · www.plasticseng.com archivierte, peer-rezensierte Internetzeitschrift archival, peer-reviewed online Journal of the Scientific Alliance of Polymer Technology handed in: accepted: 07.04.2014 10.07.2014 Dipl.-Ing. Marc Schöneich1,2, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Stommel2, Dr. Andrea Kratz3, Dipl.Mat. Valentin Zobel4, Prof. Dr. Gerik Scheuermann4, Dr. Ingrid Hotz5, Prof. Dr. Bernhard Burgeth6 1 Chair of Polymer Materials, Saarland University Chair of Plastics Technology, Technical University Dortmund 3 Department of Visualization and Data Analysis, Zuse Institute Berlin 4 Image and Signal Processing Group, Institute for Informatics, University of Leipzig 5 German Aerospace Center (DLR), Braunschweig 6 Department of Mathematics, Saarland University 2 Optimization strategy for the design of ribbed plastic components The engineer is supported for the design of ribbed plastic components by basic guidelines concerning the shape and the position of the ribs. Thus, the experience and intuition of the individual engineer plays an important role. For this reason, a component with an optimal rib structure cannot be guaranteed. In this publication a new strategy is presented as assistance for the design of ribbed plastic components. The guidance of the design of rib structures in injection molded plastic parts by tensor visualization will result in an optimized rib structure which leads to stiffer parts when identical material is used. FE-simulations as well as experimental tests validate the optimization potential of tensor visualization for the design of ribbed plastic components. Optimierungsstrategie zur Konstruktion verrippter Kunststoffbauteile Zur Gestaltung verrippter Kunststoffbauteile werden dem Konstrukteur neben grundlegenden Gestaltungsrichtlinien kaum Hilfestellungen bei der Rippenpositionierung und -gestaltung gegeben. Die Erfahrung und Intuition des Einzelnen spielen somit eine wichtige Rolle. Aus diesem Grund kann für ein Bauteil eine optimale Rippenstruktur nicht unbedingt sichergestellt werden. In der vorliegenden Veröffentlichung wird eine neue Strategie als Hilfestellung zur Konstruktion verrippter Kunststoffbauteile vorgestellt. Die Orientierung an Tensorvisualisierung zur Konstruktion von Rippenstrukturen in Kunststoff-Spritzgussartikeln führt zu einem insgesamt steiferen Bauteil bei identischem Materialeinsatz als die intuitiv verrippte Referenzstruktur. Struktursimulationen sowie experimentelle Bauteiltests validieren in dem Beitrag das Optimierungspotential von Tensorvisualisierung zur Konstruktion verrippter Kunststoffbauteile. © Carl Hanser Verlag Zeitschrift Kunststofftechnik / Journal of Plastics Technology 9 (2013) 4 © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Optimization of ribbed plastic components Optimization strategy for the design of ribbed plastic components M. Schöneich, M. Stommel, A. Kratz, V. Zobel, G. Scheuermann, I. Hotz, B. Burgeth 1 INTRODUCTION Injection molded technical plastic parts are commonly supported by rib structures to achieve a lightweight design while meeting the requirements of strength and stiffness. In order to use the full potential of rib structures, their design with respect to geometry, number of ribs and the position within the component is the most crucial aspect. Existing design guidelines offer some fundamental geometric advices towards the rib design [2-4]. However, the positioning of the ribs within the component depends mostly on the experience of the engineer. In the following, a method is presented to optimize the design of rib structures by visualization methods. The stress tensors resulting from FEsimulations and therewith the load paths are visualized by tensor lines and textures. Based on these, different rib structures are defined leading the engineer towards a load-related rib structure. FE-simulations and experiments are conducted to evaluate the method. Furthermore, the results are compared to a reference part, which is ribbed according to the established guidelines to highlight the benefits of the introduced method. 2 STATE OF THE ART 2.1 Ribbed Component Design Several general guidelines exist to design ribbed plastic components [1-4]. For instance, ribs are preferably located in tensile loaded areas of the part, oriented in the direction of the applied load. However, perpendicular to the loading direction the ribs result in a cross-sectional jump which leads to stress concentrations. Therefore, the load path defined from the point of force introduction to the fixation plays an important role for the design of rib structures. Besides, there are a couple of further general rules for designing ribs (see i.e. [2-3]), which are briefly summarized in the following: The height of a rib should be chosen five to ten times the basic wall thickness of the molded part to reach a sufficient stiffening effect. The upper height of a rib is limited by an increasing tendency to buckling effects which often arise by tall rib heights under compressive stressing. A further influence on the stiffness, other than the height of a rib, is their number. The stiffness increases proportionally to Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 161 © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Optimization of ribbed plastic components the number of ribs. However, the material costs are equally increased so that the number of ribs is to be optimized for a given load case. Restrictions arising from processing aspects must also be considered for the design of ribs in injection molded parts. Typical rib structures are shown in figure 1. The maximum component stiffness is reached by a rib arrangement which provides a continuous distribution of forces (figure 1, left side). However, processing prescribes preferably an offset of the ribs (figure 1, right side). Figure 1: Design conflict for rib structures [3] The entire potential of ribbing in plastic components is often not sufficiently utilized because of missing adequate design criteria considering the load path. Hence, ribbed plastic components often feature oversized rib structures with a high level of complexity. 2.2 Tensor Visualization: Basics and Possibilities In this article a methodology to guide the process of designing ribs regarding the mechanical loading in a technical plastic component is developed. The concept is based on tensor information originating from Finite-Element (FE) simulations. The strains and stresses calculated by FE-simulations due to the applied deformations and forces are stored in the form of tensors. In the 3D case, stress and strain tensors are symmetrical 3x3 matrices. The dimensioning of technical products is commonly based on the comparison of a scalar, material specific strength quantity to a stress or strain value calculated from the 3D-tensor data by e.g. the well-known von-Mises equation. The prescribed procedure is well-established engineering practice. However, in this way much of the tensor information cannot be used for the dimensioning. Therefore, a new approach using different interpretation concepts of tensors is introduced in order to use the full tensor information for dimensioning. In [5] and Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 162 Optimization of ribbed plastic components [6] concepts for the visualization of tensor fields are presented. Based on these concepts, a method for the design of rib structures based on visualized tensor fields in plastic parts is introduced. In the following, the two main methods, tensor lines and tensor fabric textures are described very briefly (for more details see [5] and [6]): 1. Tensor Lines. Tensor lines represent a visualization method for tensors similar to streamlines for vector fields. A tensor line is an integral curve, which is tangent to one chosen eigenvector field in each point [7, 8]. A three-dimensional symmetrical tensor second order can be decomposed into its three eigenvalues and three eigenvectors, whereby the eigenvectors form an orthonormal system. A distinction is made between major, intermediate, and minor eigenvalue or eigenvector. The representative lines of the major and minor eigenvector are of particular interest for the stress tensor fields, because they can be interpreted as the load path of tensile and compressive loads. © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Figure 2: Tensor lines of the major (violet) und minor (green) eigenvector in a cube of material under the demonstrated load case An example to illustrate the tensor lines is shown in figure 2. Because of the load case the cube is locally stressed either by tension or compression. The description with tensor lines enables the direct distinction between the load path of compression (green) and the load path of tensile stresses (violet). It should be noted that tensor lines solely visualize the information of direction. By Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 163 © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Optimization of ribbed plastic components analogy with streamlines the correct selection of these lines is seen as a great challenge in research. 2. Tensor Fabric Textures. Tensor Fabric Textures describe texture-based methods to visualize two-dimensional projections of the three-dimensional stress field. Thus, the three-dimensional tensor is projected on a twodimensional sectional plane [9]. The idea of this method is to generate a texture that characterizes the eigenvector field and reflects the main characteristics of a tensor field. For the identical load case of figure 2, figure 3 shows an example for a two-dimensional tensor fabric texture. The position of the plane can be varied in the present geometry. Figure 3: Tensor textures in a plane of the cube from fig. 2 3 STRATEGY FOR THE DESIGN OF RIBBED PLASTIC COMPONENTS The above introduced visualization of tensor lines and textures generates information on load paths in plastic molded parts. This information is used to establish a methodology which supports the dimensioning and optimization of rib structures. It is hypothesized that a rib structure, which follows the course of tensor lines and structures, shows an optimized design regarding stiffness and strength. A reference component with a ribbed structure in accordance with the Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 164 © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Optimization of ribbed plastic components state of the art guidelines is designed. In a next step, new rib arrangements are introduced based on the tensor visualization methods. A comparison of the reference structure and the structures based on tensor visualization finally evaluates the applied method. 3.1 Reference Part: Geometry and FE-Simulation A brake lever used for bicycling is selected as the reference geometry. The geometry of the brake lever is shown in figure 4. It contains a ribbed structure to increase the component’s stiffness. The ribbed structure is placed in an area of the component which is defined in the following as the design space (see figure 4). The handle of the lever is designed as a U-shaped profile analogous to existing components. Furthermore, the developed brake lever shows an intended asymmetry which guarantees multiaxial stress conditions under service load. Figure 4: Developed reference geometry of a brake lever with the design space for tensor line driven structural optimization The loads and boundary conditions of the FE-simulation are presented in figure 5. Bolts are inserted into the brake lever which constitutes the holding of the lever during testing. The service force is applied at the highlighted surface to represent a braking action. The value of the load is derived from dynamometer test results that showed for different operators an average service load of 200 N [10]. The rib structures highlighted in the design space in figure 4 should be designed according to this load case. Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 165 Optimization of ribbed plastic components Figure 5: Representation of the load case in the simulation The simulation results are presented in figure 6. The high-loaded areas in the component are determined by evaluating the von-Mises stress criterion. The focus of the following investigations lies on the reduction of the present maximum von-Mises stress of approx. 69 MPa as well as the increase of the component stiffness which is defined as the slope in the force vs. deflection curve, by implementing a more appropriate rib structure. © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Figure 6: Simulation results for the reference component with marked maximum von-Mises stress (approx. 69 MPa) Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 166 3.2 Optimization of ribbed plastic components Rib Structure Design by Tensor Visualization 3.2.1 Method for designing rib structures This chapter presents a method to support the ribbing of a plastic part by tensor visualization. It is the aim to optimize the brake lever’s stiffness without increasing its volume. The principle idea of the design concept is that a maximum component stiffness in ribbed structures will be achieved by positioning the ribs in the direction of the load path in the component [3]. Both, tensor lines and textures represent this load path in a part, so that ribs in a plastic component should follow the course of the tensor lines and textures, respectively. In a first step, the design space is modeled as a full body to enable the calculation as well as the representation of the load paths in the part by tensor visualization. A fictitious material is therefore defined in the design space with a very low stiffness to neglect its influence on the mechanical behavior of the brake lever. In figure 7 (a) the results of the FE-simulations are presented. © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Figure 7: Visualization of the stress in the brake lever after the FE-simulation with a filled design space (a) von-Mises stress on the component surface (b) Tensor lines of the major (tension, violet) and minor (compression, green) eigenvectors (c) Tensor textures Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 167 Optimization of ribbed plastic components 3.2.2 Developed rib structures Based on the tensor visualizations and therefore the tensile and compression load paths (figure 7), three different rib structures are derived for a comparison with the reference geometry. It has to be stated that there are usually several possible rib patterns derivable from the tensor textures. The used lines of the tensor texture and the corresponding rib structures are shown in figure 8. No further design guidelines are considered to determine the optimization potential of the tensor visualization with respect to ribbing. The only restrictions in selecting the ribs are that the developed rib structures a) possess a nearly equal total volume compared to the reference geometry in figure 4. b) are processable by injection molding without any further effort. © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Figure 8: Selected tensor textures as well as the corresponding components with a new rib design Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 168 Optimization of ribbed plastic components 4 OPTIMIZATION POTENTIAL OF THE TENSOR VISUALIZATION 4.1 Validation by FE-Simulations The FE-simulations are used to evaluate the derived rib structures. All used simulation parameters are retained so that the stresses in figure 6 of the reference geometry can be directly compared to the tensor texture driven rib structures that are shown in figure 9. © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Figure 9: Developed components and the corresponding simulation results; maximum von-Mises stress: 69 MPa (reference), 50 MPa (1), 56 MPa (2), 54 MPa (3) Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 169 Optimization of ribbed plastic components The optimized components show lower von-Mises stress maxima. The maximum von-Mises stress is reduced by approx. 27 %. In addition, the simulation results show an average decrease of 8 % in the deformation of the reference components under the same load. Therefore, all reference geometries show a higher stiffness. 4.2 Validation by Real Component Tests 4.2.1 Production of the component Experiments on real components are carried out to confirm the simulation results. These components are produced by rapid prototyping techniques. The printed components are shown in figure 10. The reference geometry is also produced to compare the stiffness of the tested brake levers. Because the mechanical properties of the material used by the 3D print technique are not in accordance with the material properties used in the FE-simulations, quantitative statements are not possible. However, it is possible to make qualitatively statements between the reference structure and the rib structures based on tensor visualization. © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Figure 10: New brake lever geometries, 3D print technique 4.2.2 Experimental set-up and testing Analogous to the FE-simulation, the break lever is fixed by bolts in the test setup (figure 11). The force is applied by a metal stamp. The transverse speed of the stamp is 2 mm/min to ensure a quasistatic loading. The analysis of the stiffness is provided by measuring the force that is necessary for the deflection of the metal stamp. The components are tested until failure. Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 170 Figure 11: Optimization of ribbed plastic components Test setup with fixed brake lever and stamp for the load application 4.2.3 Experimental results The experimental results are represented as a force-displacement diagram in figure 12. All tensor line driven rib structures show a higher stiffness than the reference structure. Up to a deflection of 3,5 mm these rib structures show an increase of approx. 20 % in stiffness. It is remarkable that this is almost independent from the rib structure which proves the robustness of the method. It is most important to define a rib structure principally according to the tensor texture. The different possible arrangements all result in comparable stiffness values. The difference between the maximal force to reach failure of the tensor driven rib structures and the reference geometry is approx. 25 %. The observed increase in stiffness of simulation is qualitatively confirmed by the experimental results (see figure 12). © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 171 © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Figure 12: 5 Optimization of ribbed plastic components Experimental force-displacement curve; comparison of the reference component with components after an implementation of the optimization strategy SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK A method is developed that uses the information in stress tensors to support the design of suitable rib structures of plastic parts. The presented results show that rib structures based on tensor lines and textures can increase the total stiffness of the component and decrease the local stress peaks in comparison to an initial design based on common design guidelines. In figure 13 the maximum von-Mises stresses of the developed components are summarized. With a constant component weight compared to a reference design, it is shown that optimized structures show a reduction of the maximum stress between 19 % and 27 %. Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 172 Figure 13: Optimization of ribbed plastic components Maximum von-Mises stress of the developed components compared to the reference component It is a worthwhile observation that a considerable reduction of the material stressing and increase in part stiffness can be achieved independently from the specific rib structure of the component provided that the ribs are in accordance to the tensor lines or textures. That means that the presented procedure is relatively robust. A further main advantage of the developed method is that no additional optimization tools with additional demands on computing time are needed. The tensor lines are based on the already available information in the stress tensor and provide the basis for the selection of an optimized component ribbing. Thus, a new method is provided to the engineer to accomplish a load-adequate rib positioning and utilizing the lightweight potential of plastics in a more effective manner. © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 173 © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Optimization of ribbed plastic components Literature [1] Brinkmann, T. Handbuch Produktentwicklung mit Kunststoffen Carl Hanser Verlag, 2010 [2] Erhard, G. Designing with Plastics Carl Hanser Verlag, 2006 [3] Ehrenstein, G. W. Mit Kunststoffen konstruieren Carl Hanser Verlag, 2007 [4] Shoemaker, J. Moldflow Design Guide: A Resource for Plastics Band 10, Carl Hanser Verlag, 2006 [5] Kratz, A.; Meyer, B.; Hotz, I. A Visual Approach to Analysis of Stress Tensor Fields [6] Kratz, A.; Auer, A.; Stommel, M.; Hotz, I. Visualisation and Analysis of Second-Order Tensors: Moving Beyond the Symmetric PositiveDefine Case. Computer Graphics Forum - State of the Art Reports, 32(1):49-74, 2013 [7] Weinstein, D.; Kindlmann, G.; Lundberg, E Tensorlines: Advection-diffusion Based Propagation Through Diffusion Tensor Fields Jeremic, B.; Scheuermann, G.; Frey, J.; Yang, Z. Tensor Visualization in Computational Geomechanics Hotz, I.; Feng, L.; Hagen, H.; Hamann, B. Physically Based Methods for Tensor Field Visualization [8] [9] [10] Mathiowetz, V.; Kashman, N.; Volland, G.; Weber, K.; Scientific Visualization: Interactions, Features, metaphors, Volume 2 of Dagstuhl Follow-Ups, pp. 188-211, 2011 Proceedings of the IEEE Visualization conference, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 249-253, 1999 International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 26:925-944, 2002 Proceedings of the IEEE Visualization conference, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 123-130, 2004 Grip and Pinch Strength: Normative Data for Adults American Occupational Therapy Program, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1984 Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 174 © 2014 Carl Hanser Verlag, München www.kunststofftech.com Nicht zur Verwendung in Intranet- und Internet-Angeboten sowie elektronischen Verteilern. Schöneich, Stommel et al. Optimization of ribbed plastic components Keywords: Component optimization, rib structures, tensor visualization Stichworte: Bauteiloptimierung, Rippenstrukturen, Tensorvisualisierung Autor / author: 1,2 Dipl.-Ing. Marc Schöneich 2 Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Stommel 3 Dr. Andrea Kratz 4 Dipl.-Mat. Valentin Zobel 4 Prof. Dr. Gerik Scheuermann 5 Dr. Ingrid Hotz 6 Prof. Dr. Bernhard Burgeth 1 E-Mail: m.schoeneich @mx.unisaarland.de Website: http://www.lpw.unisaarland.de Tel.: +49 (0)681 302-6526 Fax: +49 (0)681 302-6530 Universität des Saarlandes Lehrstuhl für Polymerwerkstoffe Campus C6 3 66123 Saarbrücken 2 Technische Universität Dortmund Lehrstuhl für Kunststoffverarbeitungstechnologie Leonhard-Euler-Straße 5 D-44227 Dortmund 3 Zuse-Institut Berlin Abteilung Visualisierung und Datenanalyse Takustraße 7 14195 Berlin-Dahlem 4 Universität Leipzig Institut für Informatik Augustusplatz 10 04105 Leipzig 5 DLR Braunschweig Lilienthalplatz 7 38108 Braunschweig 6 Universität des Saarlandes Fachrichtung Mathematik Campus E2 4 66123 Saarbrücken Herausgeber / Editor: Europa/Europe Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. Gottfried W. Ehrenstein, verantwortlich Lehrstuhl für Kunststofftechnik Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg Am Weichselgarten 9 D-91058 Erlangen Deutschland Phone: +49 (0)9131/85 - 29703 Fax.: +49 (0)9131/85 - 29709 E-Mail-Adress: [email protected] Amerika/The Americas Prof. Prof. hon. Dr. Tim A. Osswald, responsible Polymer Engineering Center, Director University of Wisconsin-Madison 1513 University Avenue Madison, WI 53706 USA Phone: +1/608 263 9538 Fax.: +1/608 265 2316 E-Mail-Adresss: [email protected] Verlag/Publisher: Carl-Hanser-Verlag Kolbergerstraße 22 D-81679 München Tel.: +49 (0)89 99830-613 Fax: +49 (0)89 99830-225 Redaktion / Editorial Office: Dr.-Ing. Eva Bittmann Christopher Fischer, M.Sc. Journal of Plastics Technology 10 (2014) 4 Beirat / Advisory Board: 38 Experten aus Forschung und Industrie, gelistet unter www.kunststofftech.com 175