Numerical Approach for the Assessment of Micro-Textured Walls Effects on Rubber Injection Moulding

Polymers

Belén Hernández-Gascón¹  Salvador Izquierdo¹  María García-Camprubí¹  Carmen Alfaro-Isac¹  JoséRamón Valdés¹ 

[1] Instituto Tecnológico de Aragón (ITAINNOVA), C/María de Luna, n°7-8, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain;

关键词: rubber;    seals;    injection moulding;    surface texture;    modelling;    computational fluid dynamics;   

DOI  :  10.3390/polym13111739

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Micro-surface texturing of elastomeric seals is a validated method to improve the friction and wear characteristics of the seals. In this study, the injection process of high-viscosity elastomeric materials in moulds with wall microprotusions is evaluated. To this end, a novel CFD methodology is developed and implemented in OpenFOAM to address rubber flow behaviour at both microscale and macroscale. The first approach allows analyzing the flow perturbation induced by a particular surface texture and generate results to calculate an equivalent wall shear stress that is introduced into the macroscale case through reduced order modelling. The methodology is applied to simulate rubber injection in textured moulds in an academic case (straight pipe) and a real case (D-ring seal mould). In both cases, it is shown that textured walls do not increase the injection pressure and therefore the manufacturing process is not adversely affected.

【 授权许可】

Unknown