Hi,

I work for a packaging company (design and manufacture of packaging machines and services) and I am interested in a CFD software to simulate the thermofoming process (package formation)

I have been reviewing the main CFD software but they don´t have special features for this area, that is they are more generalistic and are specialized in turbulence, combustion.... not in thermoforming

Could anybody give me some information about CFD softwares that could be used in my case?

Thanks in advance, - Patxi Gil

Yes, I know that Fluent has software called polyflow that might be of interest for your application. Search for Polyflow on the web. You are sure to find some links to the software.

Regards

Are you looking for solutions regarding the heating of the sheet and temperature distributions or are you looking for behavior of the plastic when it hits the mold?

I am more looking for behavior of the plastic when it hits the mold, however heating and sheet and temperature distributions will be interesting in a mid-term future.

This might be a job for Abaqus and a CFD code coupled together. You have a large deformation large strain highly non-linear material with contact coupled with heat transfer. Contact with the mold is probably responsible for the greater part of the heat transfered from the polymer so this might be better done with an FEA code.

What is it you are after, thinning, cycle time, formability?