A level set based immersed boundary method for simulation of non-isothermal viscoelastic melt filling process

Abstract

In this work, the polymer melt filling process is simulated by using a coupled finite volume and level-set based immersed boundary (LS-IB) method. Firstly, based on a shape level set (LS) function to represent the mold boundary, a LS-IB method is developed to model the complex mold walls. Then the non-isothermal melt filling process is simulated based on non-Newtonian viscoelastic equations with different Reynolds numbers in a circular cavity with a solid core, and the effects of Reynolds number on the flow patterns of polymer melt are presented and compared with each other. And then for a true polymer melt with a small Reynolds number that varies with melt viscosity, the moving interface, the temperature distributions and the molecular deformation are shown and analyzed in detail. At last, as a commonly used application case, a socket cavity with seven inserts is investigated. The corresponding physical quantities, such as the melt velocity, molecular deformation, normal stresses, first normal stress difference, temperature distributions and frozen layer are analyzed and discussed. The results could provide some predictions and guidance for the polymer processing industry.