Non‐isothermal gas‐assisted displacement of viscous Newtonian fluids at high capillary number in gas‐assisted injection molding.

Gas‐assisted injection molding is a polymer processing technology in which a penetrating gas bubble hollows out a plastic part as it cools and solidifies within a mold. In this study, non‐isothermal gas injection experiments at high capillary number illustrate the effects of delay time in gas injection, tube diameter, capillary number, and temperature‐sensitive fluid viscosity and flow activation energy on coating thickness. Experiments with polybutene H‐300 and Dow Corning silicon oil (DC‐200) in stainless steel tubing (1.27 and 0.635 cm) demonstrated fractional coverage increasing from 0.6 to a maximum in the range of 0.63–0.83 at short delay times, then decaying toward 0.6 at long delay times upon approaching the cooled isothermal state. Further analysis is drawn from simulations based on a simple theoretical model incorporating one‐dimensional heat transfer with convection at the outer surface of the mold, non‐isothermal behavior of the viscous fluid, and radial velocity profiles in the one‐phase fluid flow region. Quantitative agreement is found between experimental and simulated results. Two‐dimensional modeling and simulation methods extend the prior results to illustrate transient axial and radial heat transfer as well as flow behavior with respect to the penetrating gas bubble within the fluid flow region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]