Simulation of Jetting in Injection Molding Using a Finite Volume Method
National Engineering Research Center of Mold & Die, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450002, China
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Academic Editor: Xianqiao Wang
Polymers 2016, 8(5), 172; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym8050172
Received: 16 March 2016
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Revised: 18 April 2016
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Accepted: 22 April 2016
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Published: 4 May 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Modeling and Simulation in Polymer)
In order to predict the jetting and the subsequent buckling flow more accurately, a three dimensional melt flow model was established on a viscous, incompressible, and non-isothermal fluid, and a control volume-based finite volume method was employed to discretize the governing equations. A two-fold iterative method was proposed to decouple the dependence among pressure, velocity, and temperature so as to reduce the computation and improve the numerical stability. Based on the proposed theoretical model and numerical method, a program code was developed to simulate melt front progress and flow fields. The numerical simulations for different injection speeds, melt temperatures, and gate locations were carried out to explore the jetting mechanism. The results indicate the filling pattern depends on the competition between inertial and viscous forces. When inertial force exceeds the viscous force jetting occurs, then it changes to a buckling flow as the viscous force competes over the inertial force. Once the melt contacts with the mold wall, the melt filling switches to conventional sequential filling mode. Numerical results also indicate jetting length increases with injection speed but changes little with melt temperature. The reasonable agreements between simulated and experimental jetting length and buckling frequency imply the proposed method is valid for jetting simulation.
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Keywords:
jetting; finite volume method; Cross-WLF; VOF Method; injection molding
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MDPI and ACS Style
Hua, S.; Zhang, S.; Cao, W.; Wang, Y.; Shao, C.; Liu, C.; Dong, B.; Shen, C. Simulation of Jetting in Injection Molding Using a Finite Volume Method. Polymers 2016, 8, 172. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym8050172
AMA Style
Hua S, Zhang S, Cao W, Wang Y, Shao C, Liu C, Dong B, Shen C. Simulation of Jetting in Injection Molding Using a Finite Volume Method. Polymers. 2016; 8(5):172. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym8050172
Chicago/Turabian StyleHua, Shaozhen, Shixun Zhang, Wei Cao, Yaming Wang, Chunguang Shao, Chuntai Liu, Binbin Dong, and Changyu Shen. 2016. "Simulation of Jetting in Injection Molding Using a Finite Volume Method" Polymers 8, no. 5: 172. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym8050172
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