A Smart Sensor for the Heat Flow of an Extruder

TL;DR

This paper develops and validates a smart sensor based on finite volume modeling to measure heat flow in an extruder, improving thermal control independent of the granulate material.

Contribution

It introduces a novel smart sensor design utilizing finite volume models for accurate heat flow measurement in extruders, validated through finite element analysis and real measurements.

Findings

Finite volume model accurately predicts heat flow.

Sensor design effectively decouples thermal control from granulate.

Models validated by measurements and finite element simulations.

Abstract

Two mathematical models are derived to describe the thermal dynamics of a plastics production machine. The Smart Sensor design is based on the finite volume model. The accuracy of the derived finite volume model is validated by a finite element model. Those models are validated by measurements. A Smart Sensor for the heat flow between the extruder cylinder and screw conveyor is designed. Such a configuration has the advantage to decouple the thermal control problem from the specific granulate.