Numerical simulation of gas-assisted injection molding using CLSVOF method

It is a typical gas-liquid two phase flow phenomenon that gas penetrates the polymer melt in gas-assisted injection molding (GAIM) process. Numerical simulation is now playing an important role in GAIM, in which the accurate simulation of moving interface is of great importance. The level set (LS) method is a popular interface tracking method, but it does not ensure naturally mass-conservation. In order to improve the mass-conservation of LS method, a coupled level-set and volume-of-fluid (CLSVOF) method with mass-correction is presented for the numerical simulations of interfacial flows in GAIM. The performance of this CLSVOF method is demonstrated by two numerical tests including the three-dimensional deformation field test and the dam break problems. Finally the CLSVOF method is employed to simulate the 3D moving interfaces in GAIM, including gas-melt interface and the melt-front interface. The influences of melt temperature and gas delay time are also analyzed detailedly. As a case study, the processes that gas penetrates the polymer melt in complex cavities are also simulated using this method, and the simulation results are in agreement with those obtained by other researchers. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.