Mould filling simulation using finite elements

Abstract

In this paper we consider several aspects related to the application of the pseudo‐concentration techniques to the simulation of mould filling processes. We discuss, in particular, the smoothing of the front when finite elements with interior nodes are employed and the evacuation of air through the introduction of temporary free wall nodes. The basic numerical techniques to solve the incompressible Navier—Stokes equations are also briefly described. The main features of the numerical model are the use of div‐stable velocity—pressure interpolations with discontinuous pressures, the elimination of the pressure via an iterative penalty formulation, the use of the SUPG approach to deal with convection‐dominated problems and the temporal integration using the generalized trapezoidal rule. At the end of the paper we present some numerical results obtained for a two‐dimensional test problem showing the ability of the method to capture complicated flow patterns.