3D Modelling of the Blow Moulding Process

Denis Laroche
Fouad Erchiqui
Industrial Materials Institute, NRC, Boucherville, Quebec, Canada

ABSTRACT: Significant developments in finite element modelling of the blow moulding process have
been observed in the recent years. Large deformations of the parison during the clamping and inflation
stages of the process have traditionally been modelled using membrane or shell elements. The predicted
parison thickness distribution corresponds well to the experimental measurements in most of the cases.
However complex distortion of the parison such as in the pinch-off areas, as well as zones with significant
bending deformations of thick parisons cannot be properly predicted with the thin shell assumption. In this
work, large parison deformations during blow moulding are modelled using 3D elements. A 27 node brick
element with displacement-pressure and displacement-based quasi-incompressible formulations is analyzed
in term of its potential for predicting the complex deformations encountered in the clamping and inflation
stages of the process. A numerical case study on a blow moulded container using the displacement-based
formulation is presented. Numerical predictions of the parison deformations using 3D elements are also
compared to results obtained with membrane elements.

1 INTRODUCTION for increasing the accuracy in simulating the

In recent years, the blow moulding process has
significantly expanded to more complex
applications with higher performance
requirements. Numerical simulation of the process
is becoming an important tool to assist in the
development of complex blow moulded products.
Finite element modelling using membrane or shell
formulations has shown its ability to predict the
clamping and inflation stages in many applications
(Laroche 1997, Rodriguez-Villa 1995, Santhanam
1995, Ghafur 1995). However, accurate prediction
of parison behaviours such as the folding
phenomenon and high distortion in the pinch-off
area are still difficult to achieve.
Several developments have occured for
determining the rheological models that best model
the blow moulding process (Guafur 1995, Schmidt
1996, Otsuki 1997, Verron 1997). In the case of
extrusion blow moulding there is a concensus on
the ability of integral type models such as the K-
BKZ constitutive model to represent the material
large deformations during the process (Wineman
1979). The combination of thermal dependency,
and appropriate damping function into the BKZ
formulation can well describe the material
deformation for a wide range of strain rates,
deformation ratios and temperatures. Future work
process can now be concentrated on other limiting
aspects such as the membrane assumption. 3D
finite element methods in Lagrangian formulation
could potentially solve local material compressions
that cannot be properly modelled with the
membrane approximation. Other aspects of
process simulation such as parison thickness
prediction in small displacement areas could also
be improved using this approach.
This work considers the numerical modelling
of the blow moulding process using a 3D finite
element formulation. Several aspects of the
process that determine the parison deformation
modes encountered in the simulation must be
considered. This paper will focus on the clamping
and inflation stages. As a first development, a
hyperelastic Mooney-Rivlin model is used to
demonstrate the ability of 3D formulations to
predict the parison deformation. Topics and
difficulties related to the accurate simulation of the
process are also discussed.
2 ELEMENT FORMULATION
Simulation of the blow moulding process consists
of the modelling of a parison being deformed to
large strain levels. Modelling of thin shells with
3D finite elements requires the use of several The highly nonlinear material constitutive
nodes in the thickness direction since the equations representing the molten polymer can
displacement field is non-linear. This makes the make convergence difficult to obtain, particularly
simulation over an entire parison computationally due to the local compressions in flexural
expensive. In order to minimize the CPU time and deformations. The use of an elevated bulk
memory requirements, the use of a minimum modulus in the displacement-based formulation
number of elements in the thickness direction makes the element very rigid and also can lead to
should be considered. It is well known that in the poor convergence. Consequently, the pressure-
inflation stage of the blow moulding process, the displacement formulation should be preferable
most important deformation mechanism is the compared to the displacement-based method for
biaxial elongation of the parison where the stress simulating the whole parison deformation in the
and strain profiles in the thickness direction are clamping and inflation stages of the process.
constants. However bending deformations are still In Lagrangian formulation, the strain energy W
present, particularly in areas close to the pinch-off of a deformed body is a function of the 2nd Piola-
lines of the clamped parison. In these regions the Kirchhoff stress tensor S and the Green-Lagrange
parison potentially deforms to significant distortion strain tensor E:
levels, leading to larger stress and strain gradiants
in the thickness direction. The type of 3D element dW = S ij dE ij (1)
as well as the number of elements in the thickness
direction will certainly affect the quality of the The principle of virtual work, expressed in
results in these zones. tensorial form, relates the variation of the external
A displacement-pressure finite element method virtual work δWe to the stress/strain field according
is used with a quasi-incompressible approximation to:
to describe the material behaviour (Sussman 1987).
A displacement-based form obtained from
 
condensation of the pressure is also employed.
δWe = δ ∫ WdΩ 0  = ∫ S ijδE ijdΩ 0
 (2)
Since the quasi-incompressibility of the material  
 Ω0  Ω0
makes the large deformation problem difficult to
solve, the high compressibility modulus has to be
carefully controlled. In order to guarantee the Where Ω0 is the undeformed volume of the
solution and convergence in highly distorted element. The total Lagrangian finite element
regions of the parison, a 27 node brick formulation in vectorial form gives the nodal
isoparametric element with quadratic Lagrangian forces R as a function of the nodal displacement u
approximation is employed (Dhatt 1981). The as follows:
element is a C0 type and uses a total Lagrangian
formulation with 27 Gauss integration points. The  
∂  WdΩ  = S ∂E kl dΩ
∫ ∫ kl ∂u i 0
element has been successfully implemented for Ri = 0 (3)
solving problems with quasi-incompressible ∂u i  Ω0  Ω0
materials (Bercovier 1985).
The incompressibility condition is based on the A full Newton-Raphson resolution method
determinent of the deformation gradient at every requires the use of a highly non-linear tangent
integration points. Therefore the quadratic stiffness matrix K of the system:
displacement field of the element is essential for
representing flexural deformation in single or 
∂R i ∂ 2 E kl ∂E kl ∂E rs  (4)
∂u j Ω∫
double curvature modes currently observed in blow K ij = =  S kl + D klrs  dΩ
 ∂u i ∂u j ∂u i ∂u j  0
moulding. Since the 3D element can handle large 0

deformations with significant distortions, it is

potentially robust enough to model the parison where D is the tangent modulus tensor defined by
deformation in the blow moulding process, the material constitutive equation. All components
particularly in zones such as the pinch-off areas. of D represent the partial derivative of the Piola-
Kirchhoff stress relative to the Green-Lagrange In the Mooney-Rivlin model, the 2nd Piola-
strain tensor components according to: Kirchhoff stress tensor S is defined as a function of
the Cauchy-Green strain tensor C.
1  ∂S ij ∂S ij 
D klrs =  +  (5) ∂Wd ∂Wp
2  ∂E rs ∂E sr  S ij = 2 +2 (9)
∂C ij ∂C ij

3 MATERIAL MODEL The isochoric strain energy is given by

(Nicholson 1989):
The deformation of the parison during clamping
and inflation can be modelled with either M N
hyperelastic or viscoelastic constitutive equations. Wd = ∑ ∑ c ij I 1* − 3 ( )i (I *2 − 3) j (10)
Viscoelastic models have the advantage of being i = 0 j= 0

able to predict the time dependent deformation of

the parison. Integral type models such as the BKZ where cij represent the material constants. The
model with the WLF equation are better able to isostatic strain energy is given by:
predict the viscoelastic behaviour of molten
polymers (Bernstein 1963, William 1955). Solid
state models such as Mooney-Rivlin and Ogden
Wp =
2
(
1 1/ 2
κ I3 − 1
2
) (11)
hyperelastic models or Christensen viscoelastic
model can be used for predicting forming at semi- where κ is the bulk modulus of the material.
solid state or with very rapid deformations that The BKZ model was developed for molten
occur in stretch-blow moulding. These models state polymers and is then presented relative to the
give a fairly accurate prediction of the parison deformed configuration (Bernstein 1963, Chang
deformation when combined with membrane 1995). The true stress tensor is given by:
element formulations.
This work considers the 3D Lagrangian σ ij = − pδ ij + sij (12)
formulations for the Mooney-Rivlin and K-BKZ
models. For both models the strain energy where p is the isostatic pressure and s is the
equation of isotropic materials is related to the deviatoric stress tensor given by the following
invariants of the Cauchy-Green strain tensors. viscoelastic constitutive equation:
Therefore, rapid deformation with the K-BKZ
model corresponds to the Mooney-Rivlin model. t
In the Mooney-Rivlin model the energy equation  ∂Wd  T
can then be separated into isochoric strain energy
s ij = ∫ Fik ( t , τ)
 ∂ E kL ( t , τ )
 F jL ( t , τ )dτ

(13)
−∞
Wd and isostatic strain energy Wp (Nicholson 1989,
Sussman 1987). where F is the deformation gradiant at reference
time t and relative to time τ. Forcing the energy to
W = Wd ( I 1* , I *2 ) + Wp ( I 3 ) (6) be a function of the isochoric strain invariants
(Kaye, 1962) leads to the following K-BKZ
where I1* and I2* are the two first isochoric expression:
invariants of the Cauchy strain tensor and I3 is the
third invariant. The isochoric invariants are t  ∂U  I *  ∂U  I*  
s ij = ∫  ∂I *  c ij −1,* − 1 δ ij  −  c ij * − 2 δ ij  dτ (14)
defined by: −∞  1  3  ∂I *2  3  

I 1* = I 1I 3 −1/3 (7) where c-1,* and c* are the isochoric Finger and
I *2 = I 2 I 3 −2/ 3 (8) Cauchy strain tensors, respectively.
4 NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF PARISON
DEFORMATIONS

In this work, the extrusion blow moulding of a

container is considered. The analysis focusses on
the clamping and the inflation stages of the
process. The parison diameter is 56mm and the
initial thickness is 11mm. These values are
obtained on an industrial scale PLACO 3XY blow
moulding machine available at IMI.
The parison is meshed with only one layer of
27 node brick elements and the entire parison
contains 400 brick elements. The parison mesh is
shown in its initial position in Figure 1 with the
two mould halves. Only one segment of the whole
parison is meshed and axial displacements at both
ends are fixed as boundary conditions. The
simulation is performed using the two terms
Mooney-Rivlin model. The use of a K-BKZ model
should facilitate the simulation by reducing stress
levels and gradients in highly distorted regions.
This will be studied in future work.
The mould surface is modelled with a finite
element mesh of triangular elements. The Figure 1: Parison mesh with the two mould
interaction between the parison and the mould halves.
surface is verified at every iteration and assumes a
no-slip condition.
In order to control the large parison
compression and distortion that occurs in the
clamping areas the mould surface must include
appropriate flash pockets on both ends of the
mould. The flash pockets are shown in Figure 1.
In the clamping stage the two mould halves
progressively close to clamp the parison. The
parison is significantly distorted in the pinch-off
areas where it is squeezed between the mould
halves. The design of the cutting edge can
significantly affect the numerical solution by
applying a large local compression on the parison.
Figure 2 shows the predicted parison deformation
during the clamping stage. For visualization
purpose, the brick elements are represented by 4
node tetraetral elements. The results show that the
27 node brick element is able to handle the severe
parison deformation at the pinch-off areas during
this stage. Figure 2b also shows a parison overlap
in the pinch-off area. If the model could detect
parison-parison contacts, then this pinch-off area
would have been significantly more compressed. a) b)
Figure 2: Steps of parison deformation during the
clamping stage.
 During the inflation stage, the parison deforms
due to the application of a pressure on the inner
face. Figure 3 shows the deformed parison at an
intermediate and at the final step of the inflation.
As it can be seen, the element is able to handle
large deformations, particularly in the pinch-off
areas.
In order to compare the 3D results with the thin
membrane approach, the same calculation is
peformed using membrane elements for the
parison, with the same material properties, mould
geometry and loading conditions. The parison
contains 5040 triangular elements. Figure 4 shows
the comparison of the first principal stretch ratio
obtained with the 27 node brick element and the 3
node triangular membrane element. The
deformation distributions are very similar while the
triangular elements give a slightly higher parison
deformation. This is caused by the use of the thin
membrane approximation that subsequently
requires higher deformation to fully contact the
mould surface. Prediction of the thickness
distribution from calculation of the distance
between the two surfaces has not been
implemented yet. This will however be essential
for validation of the 3D modelling.
a) b)
Figure 3: Steps of parison deformation during the
inflation stage.
+2.600E+00
+2.562E+00
+2.225E+00
+2.188E+00
+2.150E+00
+2.112E+00
+2.075E+00
+2.038E+00
a) b) +2.000E+00
Figure 4: First principal stretch ratio after
inflation (mm/mm). a) 27 node brick elements; b)
triangular membrane elements.
5 CONCLUSION
The use of 3D finite element modelling for the
blow moulding process is investigated. A 27 node
brick element with pressure-displacement and
displacement-based formulations is studied in term
of its potential to predict the complex deformation
modes encountered in the clamping and inflation
stages of the process. The simulation of the
clamping and inflation stages with a displacement-
based formulation is performed with only one layer
of elements in the thickness direction. The results
indicate the ability of the element to simulate the
blow moulding process. The predicted
deformation distribution is compared to numerical
results obtained with 3 node membrane elements.
Future R&D work consists in conducting
similar analyses with the pressure-displacement
formulation. Post-calculation of the thickness
distribution needs to be done to demonstrate the
3D element ability to predict parison thickness
distribution. The results obtained with the
Mooney-Rivlin hyperelastic model also show that
the implementation of K-BKZ viscoelastic
constitutive equations should be succesful since
stress level will be smaller. The use of 3D
elements with a viscoelastic model allows the
prediction of parison viscoelastic deformations of
molten polymers encountered in the extrusion blow
moulding process.
 PET Stretch/Blow Molding Process, J. Non-
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