Optimal design of longitudinal conformal cooling channels in hot stamping tools

A new longitudinal CCC (conformal cooling channels) design in a B-pillar tool is proposed in this study. Three kinds of design parameters, the radius (Rad) of cooling channels, the distance (H) from channel center to tool work surface and the ratio (rat) of each channel center, are defined in a parameterized CAD model with the new design. For optimizing the layout of the longitudinal CCC which is determined by the above design parameters, an integrated process established by multiple software platforms based on the response surface methodology and multi-objective optimization is put forward. A design matrix with 17 factors and 50 levels is generated through OLH (optimal Latin hypercube) method. The average temperature and temperature deviation of work surface are used to evaluate the cooling performance. Quadratic response surface models are established to describe the relationship between design parameters and evaluation objectives. The accuracy of fitting models is checked by error analysis. The layout of the longitudinal CCC is optimized to find the Pareto-optimal frontier which consists of some optimal combinations of design parameters. Besides, the influence of initial design is discussed and a novel manufacture method of hot stamping tools with longitudinal CCC is briefly introduced. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.