A quick, three-dimensional tetra mesh-based simulation of the filling stage in injection moulding

Abstract

A solver based on the Hele-Shaw model can perform calculations faster than a full three-dimensional (3D) solver, but it has a drawback: it requires a mid-plane mesh whose transformation is considerably time consuming. To overcome this drawback, a new solver based on the Hele-Shaw model was developed. The new solver can directly read a 3D tetra mesh made from computer-aided design (CAD) models and perform the filling analysis of injection moulding quickly with reliable accuracy. In the current study, some classification and assignment operations are performed to apply the 3D mesh to the new solver based on mid-plane mesh. In addition, a node-pairing method is proposed for fast filling analysis. For verification of this method, results of this study were compared with those of MPI, which is one of the products of Moldflow. The results from the developed solver for most cases were very similar to those of MPI, and the analysis took only 30–40 per cent of the time consumed by MPI.