Mechanical Properties and Cost-Minimized Design of 6-liter PET Bottle Using Finite Element Method

Over the years, plastic water bottle manufacturing, especially PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) bottle has been steadily increasing due to its toughness, transparency, and chemical properties. However, most manufacturers have to spare time, and cost, verifying their prototypes in accordance to the Thai Industrial Standard (TIS) before any mass production can start. This paper aims to overcome some of these problems by using Finite Element Method (FEM) to study bottle mechanical properties, particularly maximum stress and deformation that can be employed to evaluate performance and optimal thickness. From simulation results the optimal thickness of a 6-liter bottle, that its maximum stress can still be kept under critical value, is 0.45 mm. The thinner and lighter bottle reduces the amount of material usage. The FEM simulation also speeds up and alleviates some necessary testing procedures in a prototype designing process.