Macroscopic and mesoscopic numerical model of melt filling process in complex mold cavity

Abstract

In this paper an improved simple coupled level-set and volume-of-fluid (S-CLSVOF) method is proposed and applied to trace the melt front in complex mold filling process. Meanwhile, it is simulated the evolution of molecular orientation represented by oriented ellipses. Firstly, the shape level-set (LS) function is used to represent the complex mold cavity with R-function. The benchmark problems are carried out to verify the ability of S-CLSVOF method to capture the moving interface, and the flow past a cylinder is simulated to verify the FENE-P(Finitely extensible nonlinear elastic dumbbell with the Peterlin closure) constitutive equation model. Then, the non-isothermal filling process of the viscoelastic fluid based on the FENE-P model in the complex mold cavity (a simplified cellphone mold) is simulated, and the macroscopic temperature, stress and the behavior of mesoscopic molecular orientation are shown and analyzed in detail during the mold filling process. In order to better show the process of interface evolution, the location of the weldline is also displayed at the end of filling process. Numerical results show that the higher the melt or mold temperature is, the thinner the solidified layer is, and fixing the proper position of melt injection, as well as raising the melt and the mold temperatures will decrease or eliminate the weld lines in melt filling process.