Use of Comsof Multiphysics to understand and optimize the filling phase in injection and micro -injection molding process

摘要

The work presented here deals with the simulation of the cavity filling stage of the injection and micro-injection molding process, for thermoplastic materials.Within a research project led by the Pole Europeen de Plasturgie on optimizing replication of micro-features on plastic parts-Ta challenge is to better understand physical phenomena during the process to optimize designs and process conditions. Comsol Multiphysics~R gives us the means to take into consideration some other aspects usually neglected in commercial 3D softwares dedicated to polymer processing.In particular, tracking of the flow front is based on a Level Set approach. Results are presented for a Newtonian and non-Newtonian polymer, and in an isothermal or thermal dependant configuration. Calculations are compared to experimental results on a polypropylene.In a second part, surface tension effects are analyzed when fining micro-geometries. Computations show no effect, unless thellow front proceeds down to less than 1 mm/s.Finally, our work shows the extended possibifitTeTof Comsol Multiphysics~R to deal with multi-phase flow topics for the polymer processing community.