A numerical technique is proposed for the simulation of cavity filling process during injection molding of glass-bead filled polypropylene. The mold cavity is of cylindrical shape. Marker And Cell (MAC) method is utilized for solving the transient flow phenomena, after a mathematical simulation of the flow model is carried out by using the relevant continuity and-momentum equations governing the system. The complexity of the equations involved, results in the simplifying assumption of incompressible and isothermal flow process. A computer program is written on the basis of finite-difference equations developed during the application of MAC method under the prevailing conditions. The numerical results yield significant data on the progression of the melt front, the velocity profiles in both axial and transverse directions and the pressure distributions at different times and positions in the cavity.

Master's Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Engineering - Mechanical Engineering, language: English, abstract: (Thesis in pdf available here: http: //goo.gl/EZzlT6 and here: http: //hdl.handle.net/10773/2419) Commonly used methods for injection moulding simulation involve a considerable number of simplifications, leading to a significant reduction of the computational effort but, in some cases also to limitations. In this work, Reaction Injection Moulding (RIM) simulations are performed with a minimum of simplifications, by using the general purpose CFD software package Ansys CFX, designed for numerical simulation of fluid flow and heat and mass transfer. The Ansys CFX's homogeneous multiphase flow model, which is generally considered to be the appropriate choice for modelling free surface flows where the phases are completely stratified and the interface is well defined, is shown to be unable to model the filling process correctly. This problem is overcome through the implementation of the inhomogeneous model in combination with the free-slip boundary condition for the air phase. The cure reaction is implemented in the code as a transport equation for an additional scalar variable, with a source term. Various transient and advection schemes are tested to determine which ones produce the most accurate results. Finally, the mass conservation, momentum, cure and energy equations are implemented all together to simulate the simultaneous filling and curing processes present in the RIM process. The obtained numerical results show a good global accuracy when compared with other available numerical and experimental results, though considerably long computation times are required to perform the simulations.