Numerical visualization of extensional flows in injection molding of polymer melts

Abstract Extensional flows generally take place in a channel with varied cross-sectional areas. During polymer processing with a variety of complex geometric features, it is difficult to separate extensional rates from shear rates in state-of-the-art predictive engineering tools of computational fluid dynamics. The recently proposed method of Tseng [Tseng, H.-C., “A Revisitation of Generalized Newtonian Fluids,” J Rheol 64 493–504 (2020)] decomposed the generalized strain rate as the characteristic shear and extensional rates via the rate-of-deformation tensor rotated along streamline coordinates. As validation for an isothermal center-gated disk flow, the predicted flow field profiles fairly matched the analytical solution for Newtonian fluid. Under injection molding simulations, an objective indicator is defined to visualize the colorful contours of extensional flows encountered in the gate-vicinity and the mid-plane of the cavity’s thickness direction, as well as contraction-expansion channels.