Computational modeling of die swell of extruded glass preforms at high viscosity

Abstract

Computational simulations of glass extrusion are performed to quantify the effects of material behavior and slip at the die/glass interface on the die swell. Experimental data for three glass types are used to guide the computational study, which considers glass material to be viscous with and without shear thinning and viscoelastic using the Maxwell upper-convected model. The study starts with assuming no-slip at the glass/die interface to see if material behavior alone can explain the die swell results, and then considers slip using the Navier model where interface shear is directly proportional to the relative slip speed at the interface. Consistent with the possibility of slip and intended high viscosity applications, viscosity ranging from 107.4–108.8 Pa·s was used. Based on optimization of the various input parameters required to achieve the measured die swell and ram force values, the study concludes that interface slip occurred as only extreme values of the shear thinning parameters provided an alternative.