Three-Dimensional Simulation of Melt Filling and Gas
Penetration in Gas-Assisted Injection Molding
Process Using a Finite Volume Formulation
S. W. Chau* and Y. W. Lin**
Department of
Mechanical Engineering
R & D Center for Membrane
Technology,
In this study, a numerical scheme based on a finite volume discretization and a volume-of-fluid method is developed to simulate three-dimensional melt flow and gas penetration of gas-assisted injection molding process. In contrast to previous three-dimensional methods solving Stokes equations, the full Navier-Stokes equations are solved in the present study. The modified Cross-WLF model is adopted to calculate the rheological property of polymer melt flows. The proposed numerical scheme successfully depict some important three-dimensional phenomena observed experimentally, including jetting effect, corner effect, race-tracking effect, asymmetrical gas core and asymmetric bifurcation of gas penetration around corner, which can not be described by any two-and-half dimensional model or Stokes-type three-dimensional methods commonly used in the current commercial CAE simulations for melt flows.