Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, Vol.57, No.2-3, 253-270, 1995
A 3-DIMENSIONAL BOUNDARY-ELEMENT APPROACH TO GAS-ASSISTED INJECTION-MOLDING
An Eulerian boundary-element approach is implemented for the three-dimensional simulation of the primary gas penetration stage of the gas-assisted injection molding process. The fluid is assumed to be viscous, Newtonian and incompressible. The formation of a solid skin layer due to cooling is neglected. The evolution of the melt front and gas/melt interface is obtained on the basis of mass conservation as the melt flows through a fixed (three-dimensional) mesh of the cavity. At each time step, the boundary integral equations are solved over the two front surfaces and part of the cavity walls surrounding the melt region. The front tracking technique combined with an effective boundary-element scheme appears to be quite efficient for handling complex three-dimensional geometries. The method and its potential are illustrated through examples from two-and three-dimensional simple flows.