Numerical simulation of temperature field for glass bulb mould

AbstractThrough the analysis of thermal transfer of the mould and glass parts in the forming and cooling stage of cathode ray tube (CRT) bulk, a numerical model is presented to simulate the mould cooling of the glass bulb pressing process in the present study. In the model, heat transfer in the mould region is considered to be cyclic‐steady, three‐dimensional conduction, and calculated by using a three‐dimensional boundary element method; heat transfer within the glass melt region is treated as transient, one‐dimensional conduction, and simulated by a finite difference method with a variable mesh. Compared with the experimental data, the numerical model developed here is computationally efficient and sufficiently accurate. The developed simulation package is very suitable as a tool in the optimisation of mould and processing design, which is very valuable to improve the productivity and quality of glass bulb forming.Keywords: Glass bulb mouldNumerical simulationTemperature fieldBoundary element method The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50205011).