Global award for Professorship of Plastics Engineering

Professorship of Plastics Engineering at TU Chemnitz have won the special prize in the 2018 Moldex3D Global Innovation Talent Award.

The project “Investigation of the application of Moldex3D in thermoset injection molding simulation process with wall slip boundary condition” by Ngoc Tu Tran and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Gehde from the Professorship “Kunststoffe” (Plastics Engineering), Chemnitz University of Technology, was awarded the special prize at the world's largest international plastics simulation competition, which was organized by CoreTech System (Moldex3D) from 30 April 2018 – 27 September 2018. The 2018 Moldex3D Global Innovation Talent Award is a CAE simulation application contest open to students and enterprises worldwide. The purpose of the contest is to showcase and recognize innovative practices using Moldex3D solutions. “It is a great honor for us to hold the global award in the polymer simulation competition with more than 20 countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific regions”, said Prof. Gehde.

To simulate the injection molding process, it is necessary to set material data. With a thermoset injection molding simulation, its material data sheet is found in limited sources and is seldom available from the data bank of simulation tools because of complications not only in rheological and thermal properties measurement, but also in writing optimal algorithms to model rheological and thermal mathematical equations. Therefore, before setting material data, it is necessary to create its own material data sheet, which requires extensive knowledge in the measurement of rheological and thermal properties, as well as optimization algorithms. In addition, to precisely simulate the thermoset injection molding compound process, a profound knowledge in the mold filling characteristics of thermoset injection molding compounds is required.

However, investigation of flow behavior of thermoset injection molding compounds inside the mold has not been adequately described. Up until now, there is still a big question regarding whether there is or isn’t a slip phenomenon between thermoset melts and the wall surface during the filling of the cavity, a question to which an answer has not yet been found.

The project first focuses on developing a method to study slip phenomena of polymer melt during the filling of the cavity. It was found that there was a strong slip on the interface between the phenolic polymer and the mold wall surface, which was not found for the thermoplastics injection molding. Secondly, the rheological and thermal properties of thermoset injection molding compounds was measured successfully. After that, the numerical method was developed and written to not only create its material data sheets, but also predict master curves of viscosity and cure kinetics at any heating rate. Finally, the generated data sheets that have not yet been found in data banks of any simulation tool were used to investigate the application of a Moldex3D simulation tool in simulating the injection molding process with considering slip boundary conditions.

The results of the project are beneficial for the comprehensive understanding of the slip phenomenon, and opens new ways of thinking about the influence of slip on analysis, calculation, and simulation of fiber orientation during the filling process of glass fiber reinforced thermoset injection molding compounds.

Furthermore, with the developed numerical methodology, simulation guides become independent users of material data banks from simulation tools. Finally, it is impossible to neglect the influence of wall slip on the mold filling behavior of the thermoset injection molding compounds during simulation.

Further information on the project awarded by CoreTech System could be found through Moldex3D's website.

Contact: Ngoc Tu Tran, Tel. +49 (0)371 531-37510, Email ngoc-tu.tran@mb.tu-chemnitz.de

Matthias Fejes
03.12.2018

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