| Simulation of Glass-Forming Processes | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Funding: | Vitro Tec, Monterrey, México | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Dates: | 1986 - 1990 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| People: |
Antonio López (Vitro Tec) Project Leader
Guillermo Carro (Vitro Tec)
Arturo Ortega (Vitro Tec)
Roger Z. Ríos (Vitro Tec)
Ma. Soledad Martínez (Vitro Tec)
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| Summary: |
Prior to starting my graduate work at the University of
Texas, I spent four years in Monterrey, working for Vitro Tec,
a research and development firm belonging to Vitro,
México's leading enterprise in the glass industry.
During that time, I was given the challenge of conducting
independent computer-assisted research in the area of simulation
of thermal processes. The work mainly involved the mathematical
modeling and computer implementation of algorithms for simulating
glass-forming processes, which can be decomposed in two stages.
In the first stage, a drop of melted glass (at a very high temperature)
is deposited in a container (mold). This drop is then pressed
toward the walls of the container by introducing either a press
or a strong blow. Determining the temperature distribution
associated with several scenarios is a major concern for the
quality of the product. I modeled this heat transfer process
by the finite element method. The four-year project involved
research and development on (a) linear and quadratic interpolations
for the discretization of the domain by finite elements,
(b) one-dimensional and two-dimensional domains, and (c) steady-state
and time-dependent models. As a result of the research, we observed that using quadratic instead of linear interpolation increased significantly the computational requirements but not the accuracy of the solution. As expected, the two-dimensional models gave us a more faithful representation of the real process. The models were validated with real-world data coming from our plants and are currently being used.
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| Publications: |
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