Connecting Simulation to Create New Materials from Recycling Waste

Industry is seeking new or modified materials to reduce embodied carbon/energy footprint and improve resource efficiency to meet targets and reduce landfill costs, while maintaining functional requirements of applications. A solution that is gaining interest due to its potential for circular economy business models is the use of municipal waste streams to produce recyclable plastics. These waste streams are an underutilized resource because of the challenges that result from the batch-to-batch variability of the material feedstock and its conversion to a reliable material supply with desirable properties and performance. Designers and engineers need to manage the variability and explore applications appropriate for a recycled plastic with highly variable properties. To support the management of property variability of recycled polymers for the design of engineering applications, the PRISM project enabled solutions for: 1) a novel recycling process resulting in the commercialisation of municipal waste streams for plastics - specifically looking at applications in automotive; and, 2) simulation pathways to test the optimal use of a material with highly variable properties in design. Specifically, a combination of four software components (Ansys Granta MI, Space Claim, optiSLang, and LS Dyna) were used in optimisation workflows to handle the uncertainty of material properties alongside the ability to screen geometries for applications to replace virgin materials with higher embodied CO2/energy.