Our study focuses on the modeling of infrared radiation heating and the optimal control of the heating process of preforms used in the manufacturing process of PET bottles. In the manufacture of a bottle by injection blow molding, the heat treatment of the preform plays an essential role.
In this work, we have set up an approach which goes from the phenomenological modeling of heat exchanges (conduction, radiation, convection) and which lead to partial differential equations until the numerical integration of these equations.
The approach used is that based on finite elements, since the partial differential equations make it difficult to understand the behavior of the physical system. This choice is due to the fact that it allows to solve numerically the systems with complex geometry.
The term source of radiation integrated into the heat equation was calculated with a Beer-Lambert law applied to each ray emitted by halogen lamps.
The objective is to calculate, under a single digital simulation platform, the complete thermal mapping of the preform as it leaves the oven. It is therefore, using numerical simulation in Matlab, to be able to first predict the longitudinal temperature mapping of the preform, as well as a state representation of the system simulating the temporal temperature profile during of the heating phase.
Secondly, it is about the optimal control of the heating process. This optimization consists of limiting the optimization variables included in the interval (90°C