Numerical optimization of polymer die design for multiple objective
Research engineers at Dow Chemical were interested in exploring the application of recent advances in engineering optimization using commercial Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools for their simulation based design phase. The design of a polymer die, also known as a “coat hanger” die, was chosen as a test case for such an optimization study to improve more than one objective.
Polyflow, a commercial Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code, and modeFRONTIER were used to optimize the design of one such coat hanger die.
This white paper highlights:
- how CFD-based optimization can be used to improve the flow uniformity of a coat hanger die while minimizing the pressure drop,
- how optimal solutions can be identified by increasing the number of geometric parameters that are allowed to change,
- which are the best algorithms and optimization strategies according with the number of parameters considered.