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Tetra Pak Consumer Package Goods & Retail Case Study
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
Applicable Industries
- Consumer Goods
- Food & Beverage
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Quality Analytics
- Virtual Prototyping & Product Testing
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
The Challenge
Tetra Pak, the world's largest supplier of aseptic packaging, was faced with the challenge of ensuring the integrity of aseptic packaging by modeling the complex fluid-structure interaction of the filling and sealing process. This included the packages, liquid, and machines. The company wanted to control the process completely, which required an in-depth knowledge of the loads and forces involved. The packaging process was designed to be as simple as possible, but this simplicity posed tremendous engineering challenges. The packaging material was very thin and flexible, which made for large deformations under pressure changes. The cross-section of the tube rapidly changed from circular cross-section to fully closed when folded. Most importantly, there was a strong fluid-structure interaction to be modeled that had to take into account the changing pressure waves in the fluid and their effects on the packaging material.
About The Customer
Tetra Pak is the world's largest supplier of aseptic packaging. The company was founded by Dr. Ruben Rausing in Lund, Sweden in 1951 with a simple tenet: 'A package should save more than it costs.' Rausing invented the packaging technology that still forms the basis for much of Tetra Pak's business. Currently, the company distributes more than 387 million packages per day in over 150 countries, for a total of more than 141 billion delivered worldwide in 2008. Tetra Pak is committed to providing the lowest-cost packages possible. The company's vision is to commit to making food safe and available everywhere. This commitment extends to developing countries lacking adequate power grids, cold chains, or transportation infrastructure.
The Solution
Tetra Pak chose Abaqus to evaluate the complexities of the packaging process. The company had previously used Abaqus for structural analyses, but this was the first time that Tetra Pak engineers simulated the dynamics of the fluid-structure interaction during packaging. The resulting analysis generated a greater understanding of the packaging process and provided a means to model it earlier in the design stage. The engineers selected the Tetra Fino Aseptic 500 ml, TFA 500s milk package for their initial trial analysis. The model for analysis included the composite packaging material, the packaged fluid, the flotation device that rests on top of the fluid surface, the system that folds the packaging material, and the pressure flange that controls pressure waves inside the tube. The flexible packaging material was modeled with shell elements calibrated to represent the laminated material as though it were homogenous, which reduced the computation time for the analysis.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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