Combining CVFEM and meshless front tracking in Hele–Shaw mold filling simulation

In this work, a generalized Hele–Shaw approach is developed for non‐isothermal, non‐Newtonian and inelastic flows arising in injection molding. The advancing free surface of the injected fluid is predicted by a novel meshless front‐tracking method coupled to control volume finite element solution for the pressure. A modified Cross constitutive model with Arrhenius temperature dependence is employed to describe the viscosity of the melt and the temperature field is solved by a semi‐Lagrangian scheme with a finite volume method. The utility of the combined algorithm is demonstrated for a test problem that has complex ‘obstacles’ in the mold interior. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.