A dual domain method for 3-D flow simulation

Conventional 2.5-D analysis technology, which adopts the "midplane model" was successful in predicting filling behavior for most plastic parts, especially for thin shell parts. The main drawback of this model is that it requires regenerating the midplane model rather than directly using the solid model information from computer-aided design (CAD). This study assumes the melt flow along the dual surfaces of plastic parts and regards the dual surface as the datum plane instead of the conventional midplane. The surfaces of the solid parts are meshed into triangle elements, with the nodes paired along the thickness direction. The imaginary hot runner elements in the thickness direction are added to the mesh model to connect each pair of nodes. This permits the conventional 2.5-D analysis technology to be applied in the whole-part domain without any special measures. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm for the flow simulation with the solid model in injection molding.