Michelin makes use of different means to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions as part of its decarbonisation plan, especially during the curing, the most energy-consuming stage. The firm is presently developing electrical curing presses to replace the traditional curing processes, the latter still using gas fuelled boilers as a mean to produce the necessary steam.
Within this framework, Michelin is developing an electrical internal heating system and has called to Phimeca to :
- Design a simplified numerical model allowing for quicker CFD simulations;
- Optimise the geometrical parameters of the numerical model of the internal heating system to obtain the best balance between performance and cost;
- Validate the resulting optimal layout with a more accurate numerical model.
Products
- Validation of the simplified numerical model by comparison with a more accurate simulation model;
- Formulation of the multi-objective problem, identification of the parameters to be optimised as well as the corresponding objective functions and constraints;
- Setup of an optimisation approach, including the design of a metamodel based on an adaptative design of experiment to examine and operate the optimal areas (i.e. the input parameters rendering the optimal outputs);
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Automation of the entire calculation chain: creation of parameterised geometries, mesh generation, definition of boundary conditions and post-processing.
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Selection of the Pareto front, bringing together the different trade-offs between cost and performance.
To meet Michelin’s needs, Phimeca set up a project team with engineers specialised in CFD calculation and optimization.