A Meshless Method for 21/2D Mold Filling Simulations Using Point Set Surfaces

Abstract

In this work a novel meshless technique for mold filling simulation is presented. The governing equation for this kind of problem is named Hele-Shaw and it is derivated applying some simplifications on the 3D conservation equations. This approach is also commonly called 21/2D, referring to limitations of the mold geometry to narrow and weakly curved channels. Since products manufactured by injection molding in real life, as for example buckets, automobiles bumpers and cell phone casings, are not expected to be planar, in this work the mold cavity is modeled by point set surfaces. Thus, no computational effort referring to either mesh generation or mesh maintenance is required for the numerical solution of the governing equations. The developed technique for simulating the free surface position, velocity and pressure distribution in the injection molding process using this 21/2D approach is presented and discussed. The details of our framework, which is based on Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Method and a Meshless Volume of Fluid Method is also presented.