THE CALCULATION OF SCALAR TRANSPORT DURING THE INJECTION-MOLDING OF THERMOSET POLYMERS

In this paper we present a numerical scheme for the calculation of the equation governing the advection of scalars such as temperature T and cure alpha during the injection mold filling of thermoset polymers. A finite-element line method is presented, with variations intended to cover a variety of processing conditions. Sample calculations are pres ented for the Garcia10 problem and the encapsulation of a Motorola com puter chip. We also share our experience with some of the peculiar num erical difficulties associated with the simulation of injection moldin g for realistic systems. Some of these are related to mesh ''quality,' ' time step size selection, and (numerical) degeneracy that could resu lt from some otherwise ''physical'' material models. The foregoing are issues that have not received a great deal of attention in the litera ture.