Simulation Opportunities by a Three-dimensional Calculation of Injection Moulding based on the Finite Element Method

The simulation of injection moulding is essential to meet quality requirements and to increase the efficiency of the design process. In this paper a 3D-finite element model for the simulation of injection moulding is presented. The model's capability comprises the calculation of velocity, pressure and temperature fields as well as the prediction of the flow front position. The numerical approach is mainly based on the Galerkin formulation. Special emphasis is placed on the handling of polymer compressibility in order to enable a realistic simulation of the packing phase. The numerical efficiency has been largely enhanced through the employment of an automatic time step control. In order to demonstrate the code's capabilities and outline advantages and disadvantages over other simulation systems, the calculation results are compared to experimental data and to results obtained from other numerical models.