An ElectroThermal Digital Twin for Design and Management of Radiation Heating in Industrial Processes

The design and management of thermoforming systems based on radiation heat transfer require the development of a mathematical model that can be used at all stages of the system's life cycle. For this reason, in this paper, we present a digital twin based on a hybrid ElectroThermal model that can integrate mathematical equations and data acquired in the field. The model's validity is verified with experiments performed on a test bench. The presented model is modular and can be easily used to represent new configurations of the heating elements for simulation and design. Thanks to the low computational complexity of the proposed Digital Twin, it enables the development of advanced control strategies and the analysis and optimization of the main geometric parameters of the system. In addition, it can support the identification of the best configuration and choice of measurement points.