Numerical analysis of the thermal-elastic-plastic state of electrical contact gasket made from dispersion-reinforced composite materials using the fusioned deposition modeling method

The article presents the results of a theoretical study on determining the suitability of using electrical contact gaskets (ECG) in industrial conditions (Castner direct graphitization furnaces), made of coke-pitch composite using additive technologies based on the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) method. Numerical analysis of the physical state of ECG under the conditions of industrial application was performed on the basis of the mathematical statement of the thermo-elastic-plasticity problem and the algorithm of implicit inverse mapping of its solution based on the finite element method in the Mathcad programming environment. To construct the geometry and tetraid mesh of the ECG model, a freely open program code was used - the Gmsh CAD system for grid generation, and for the visualization of the results of physical field calculations, the free open program code ParaView was used. The study of the thermo-elastic-plastic state of ECG under the conditions of the graphitization process in Castner furnaces was carried out in the temperature range up to 900 °С, at which the thermoplastic properties of the material are manifested. At the same time, such physical fields of ECG were analyzed as temperature distribution, resulting displacements, equivalent elastic stresses according to Mises, equivalent total, elastic and plastic deformations according to Mises, and the volume fraction of ECG material in a plastic state, depending on the temperature level and radial gradient temperatures (radial temperature difference) of electrical contact gaskets. Numerical simulation of the thermo-elastic-plastic state of the ECG was carried out under the conditions of force loading by external pressure on the lateral surface of the gasket of 2.5 MPa and different values ​​of the radial temperature difference in the range of 15–90 °C in the temperature range up to 900 °C. It was established that: at the stages of formation of semi-coke and coke in the material of the coke-pitch composite ECG under the thermomechanical conditions of operation of the Kastner furnace, a margin of strength of not less than unity was obtained; with the subsequent increase in the temperature level in the Castner furnace to 3000 °C and above, the raw material of ECG, as a result of thermal destruction, has already turned into coke and, therefore, its mechanical properties have become close to the mechanical properties of electrode blanks in columns that are subjected to graphitization. This gives reason to assert that the ECGs will not be mechanically destroyed during the entire graphitization campaign of the Castner furnace. On the basis of the analysis of the results of numerical simulation, the possibility of using ECGs made from dispersion-reinforced composite materials (coke-pitch mixtures) by the FDM method in the technology of graphitizing electrode products according to the Сastner method is substantiated.