Adjoint method in optimizing conformal cooling channels of 3-D printed high-pressure tools for aluminium casting
2022-01-0281
03/29/2022
- Content
- The emergence of additive manufacturing (AM) technology has enabled the internal cooling channel layout for high pressure aluminium die casting (HPADC) tools to be designed and modified without topological constraint. Optimisation studies of a full industrial HPADC mould for extending the tool service life has received limited attention due to the high geometrical complexity and the various physics with multi time and length scales in addition to the manufacturability limitations. In this work a new computational efficient algorithm that employs the adjoint optimization method has been developed to optimize the coolant channels layout in a complete mould with various 3D printed inserts. The algorithms reduced significantly the computational time and resources by decoupling the fluid flow in the coolant channels from the tool and simulating them separately. The channels heat transfer coefficient values are then interpolated and mapped into the thermal model that implements the adjoint optimisation approach to automatically push/pull the pipes toward the cavity based on the gradient of the optimization function with respect to the pipe surface location. Using the adjoint method, with a customised multi-objective function, an improvement of 15 % for the cooling uniformity between the mould/cast interface was achieved. Because of the simplified mapping approach, a significant reduction of the computational was achieved by adopting this strategy. The spatial distribution of the tool temperature and cavity are presented for the baseline and optimized coolant. The results showed not only the optimized channels have variation in layout but also in their cross-section shape at different locations to satisfy the optimum function. The optimised inserts have been used in the tool with a significant increase in their service lifetime.
- Citation
- Zeng, T., Abo-Serie, E., Jewkes, J., Dodd, P. et al., "Adjoint method in optimizing conformal cooling channels of 3-D printed high-pressure tools for aluminium casting," SAE Technical Paper 2022-01-0281, 2022, .