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3D‐Flow Analysis by Means of Streamline Calculation
Author(s) -
Michaeli Walter,
Kratz Marcus,
Hoffmann Stefan
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/1439-2054(20011201)286:12<774::aid-mame774>3.0.co;2-z
Subject(s) - streamlines, streaklines, and pathlines , injection moulding , process (computing) , flow (mathematics) , computer simulation , software , computer science , mechanical engineering , simulation software , field (mathematics) , finite element method , shell (structure) , material flow , engineering drawing , materials science , simulation , mechanics , structural engineering , engineering , mathematics , physics , ecology , pure mathematics , biology , programming language , operating system
Over the last several years simulation software has become more and more important for mould design and process optimisation in polymer processing. Due to the mainly thin‐walled nature of most injection moulding parts, the currently used simulation programs are predominantly based on shell‐type elements with a two‐dimensional flow field in each element. Because of some assumptions, related to this specific calculation method, these so‐called 2.5D‐programs reach their limits in the simulation of complex‐shaped, thick‐walled mouldings. The fully three‐dimensional calculation of the injection moulding process offers a high potential which leads to improvement in result quality. This paper is a report of an investigation of streamlines in three‐dimensional flow fields, which typically occur in injection moulding. The streamlines were investigated by numerical simulation using 3D‐simulation software and by experiments. For the experiments a special mould has been designed, which enables pigments to be injected into the runner system of the mould. The injection can be done at different positions over the flow channel cross section. Thus the path of different coloured particles can be directly observed. The mould can be equipped with different inserts in order to allow an investigation of different geometries. In general, simulated and observed streamlines are in good agreement. Minor differences are due to special features in mould design or the calculation algorithm. The insights gained from this investigation can be applied to find appropriate simplifications in numerical 3D‐simulation in order to cut down computing times.