SIMPLIFIED METHOD FOR ANALYZING MOLD FILLING DYNAMICS .2. EXTENSIONS AND COMPARISONS WITH EXPERIMENT

A dimensional analysis based on four parameters has been developed previously to predict injection pressure; clamp force, and bulk temperature for the injection molding of amorphous materials in center‐gated disk‐shaped cavities. In this paper geometric and semicrystalline‐materials approximations are introduced and tested for extending the previous analysis to include multigated thin cavities and semicrystalline materials. The combination of these approximations and the previous analysis, known hereafter as the Radial Flow Method (RFM), greatly simplifies the analysis of mold filling. The geometric approximation, which is based on a simple model for the axial stress distribution in the cavity, is shown to give reasonable predictions when compared with experimental data and a numerical two‐directional flow simulation for the filling of an off‐center‐gated rectangular cavity with acrylonitrilebutadiene‐styrene copolymer (ABS). The semicrystallinematerials approximation, in which heat capacity and viscosity changes during crystallization are neglected, is shown to give good agreement with experimental data for the filling of a center‐gated disk‐shaped cavity with polypropylene. As an illustration, the Radial Flow Method is used to analyze the molding of a large, thin‐wall automobile interior trim panel. The inlet melt temperature, mold‐wall temperature, part thickness, injection rate, viscosity and gate locations are varied in a series of calculations to determine the relative effectiveness of these variables in lowering the injection pressure and Clamp force. The results obtained with the Radial Flow Method are in good agreement with those obtained by a finiteelement simulation of two‐directional flow. Copyright © 1979 Society of Plastics Engineers, Inc.