Design and finite element method based structural analysis of a pet bottles-to-plastic flakes recycling plant

Abstract

Plastic waste continues to accumulate, posing a severe global environmental threat. To address this problem, recycling plastic waste into reusable forms has been identified as a viable and sustainable solution. This paper presents the conceptual design of a process plant for the recycling of Polyethylene Terephthalate bottles into plastic flakes that can be used as feedstock for the production of other usable plastic products. A comprehensive analytical design of the various machine elements was presented, and a structural analysis of the critical machine components was carried out using the finite element method on Autodesk Inventor software to evaluate their structural integrity. The finite element analysis predicted a maximum stress of 1.503 MPa, 10.48 MPa, 11.82 MPa, and 17.69 MPa for the frames of the compression machine, label remover machine, shredding machine, and washing bath, respectively. Also, the maximum stress predicted for the screw and washing shaft due to turning moment is 126.9 MPa and 41.2 MPa, respectively. This result indicated that the predicted maximum stresses experienced by the machine components are significantly less than the yield strengths of the various materials selected for the design.

Article history: Received (October 9, 2022); Revised (February 15, 2023); Accepted (February 22, 2023); Published online (February 27, 2023)