ALE Finite Element Simulation for the Injection Molding Process
Han Xianhong,Li Xikui
(State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis of Industrial Equipment, Dalian Uni versity of Technology, Dalian 116023, P.R. China)

Abstract: A finite element model in an ALE framework for numerical simulation of the injection molding process is presented. The material movement of the me lt polymer in the filling process is described by means of the ALE referential configuration with the referential particle velocity. The Hele-Shaw approximation is abandoned so that the proposed model can be applied to numerically simulate the polymer filling process in thick-walled moulds. The Taylor-Galerkin scheme based on the fractional-step algorithm is employed to obtain the weak forms of the conservation equations governing the filling process. In addition, an ALE mesh generation algorithm with a mesh rezoning scheme for the material zone near the moving filling front is constructed. Numerical results for modeling of the filling processes in several typical moulds are illustrated to demonstrate the capability and of the proposed ALE finite element model for the injection molding process.
Keywords: abitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method, mould filling, thick-walled mould, Taylor-Galerkin procedure, fractional-step algo rithm.