Numerical Simulation of Molding Hele-Shaw Flow of Polymeric Liquid Crystals

Abstract

To develop a general-purpose program for predicting the molding flow of polymeric liquid crystals, we present a basic model and its computational procedure. The flow is modeled by the Transversely Isotropic Fluid theory, which is equivalent to the Leslie-Ericksen equations in the high viscosity limit. In the modeling, the Hele-Shaw approximation is applied to reduce computational power. A finite difference technique is used to solve the governing equations, except for the angular momentum equation, which is solved by a streamline integration method. Two molds with thin and simple shape cavities are selected to evaluate the model. The computational results for the locations of the flow front, and for the distributions of the temperature and the molecular orientation show that the model successfully predicts a smooth molding process and that the molecular orientation direction depends strongly on the position in the gap direction. Since alignment of molecules is disordered by the occurrence of tumbling behavior, which depends on the fluid temperature and shear strain, the mold wall temperature and the gate position are important for effective molding.