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Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding – Experimental Assessment

Article  in  International Polymer Processing Journal of the Polymer Processing Society · November 2014
DOI: 10.3139/217.2862

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REGULAR CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES
C. Fernandes, A. J. Pontes, J. C. Viana, J. M. Nóbrega, A. Gaspar-Cunha*
IPC/I3N – Institute for Polymer and Composites, Dept. of Polymer Engineering, University of Minho, Portugal
Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding –
Experimental Assessment
A computational model for the description of polymer flow
during the plasticating phase of the injection molding process
is proposed. The polymer behavior is determined during the
dynamic and static phases of the process. The model takes
into account the backwards movement of the screw, the pre-
sence of a non-return valve and the conduction of heat during
the idle times. Results for the dynamic and static phases of the
plasticization are presented. The model is also used to study
the influence of some important operative process parameters,
such as, screw speed, backpressure, barrel temperatures and
injection chamber length. The assessment of the computa-
tional results is made experimentally by comparing the aver-
age temperature calculated with measurements made in front
of the screw nozzle using both, an IR camera and an IR ther-
mometer. The differences between the computational and the
IR camera measurements are below 5 %.
1 Introduction
Injection molding represents the most important process for
manufacturing plastic parts. This processing technique is
appropriate for mass production of plastic items, since raw ma-
terial can be transformed into a molding by a single procedure.
In most cases finishing operations are not required. An impor-
tant benefit of injection molding is the possibility of making
complex geometries automatically in one production step.
Typical injection moldings can be found everywhere in daily
life, examples include automotive parts, toys, household arti-
cles, consumer electronic goods and micro parts.
Screw in-line plastic injection molding machines have been
used for the production of most products. However, existing
studies were mainly on extruders, which are simpler to model
and differ by neglecting the transient effects. There are a num-
ber of reasons for this, one of which is that model for recipro-
cating extruders is more complex. Up to now, many of the stud-
ies on the inline injection process take the simpler course of an
extruder. This over-simplification of the inline injection pro-
cess leaves out the most vital aspect of reciprocation, which
* Mail address: Antonio Gaspar-Cunha, IPC/I3N – Institute for Poly-
mer and Composites, Dept. of Polymer Engineering, University of
Minho, Portugal
E-mail: agc@dep.uminho.pt
Intern. Polymer Processing XXIX (2014) 4
Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich
IPP_IPP2862 – 5.6.14/stm media köthen
changes the process model from steady extrusion to that of a
discontinuous process.
In a typical reciprocating injection molding cycle, first the
screw is located in the forward position in the barrel, then the
screw begins to rotate (screw recharge), conveying plastic ma-
terial forward and developing a pressure ahead of the screw.
This pressure forces the screw back to the desired volume of
the molded part. The screw is then idle in the back position
while the previously molded plastic cools down in the mold
and the mold is opened and the part ejected. After the mold
closes again, the screw is forced forwards by hydraulic pres-
sure, causing the newly recharged shot at the head of the screw
to flow into the empty mold. A valve, such as a check ring, pre-
vents back-flow during injection. The screw then maintains the
pressure on the molded plastic for a specific time (the holding
time). This completes the cycle.
Hence the injection cycle can be divided into three stages:
the feeding (the screw rotating and moving backwards), stop
(no screw movement), and injecting (the screw moving for-
wards without rotation).
Plasticization in a reciprocating-screw injection molding
machine has been generally assumed to be analogous to that
of a single-screw extruder. That is, the screw can be divided
into three functional zones of solid-conveying, melting, and
metering. Plastic melts predominantly in the melting zone, lo-
cated between the solid-conveying and metering zones. The
plastic granules are joined into a single solid piece (solid-
bed), before entering the melting zone, in which the solid-bed
is constantly deformed.
A considerable progress in optimization of plasticating sys-
tems of screw machines can be obtained not only in an experi-
mental way, but also by means of mathematical modeling of
transport phenomena in such systems. Due to the character of
plasticization in the injection molding process the resulting
equations of continuity, motion and energy are strongly
coupled and they can be solved only numerically. Therefore,
mathematical models of transport phenomena can be success-
fully applied only by computer process simulation.
In the literature is possible to find some computer models for
simulation of polymer plasticating during extrusion (Tadmor
and Klein, 1968, 1970; Chung, 1971; Tadmor, 1974; Torner,
1977; Tadmor and Gogos, 1979; Agur and Vlachopulos,
1982; Zawadzky and Karnis, 1985, Rao, 1986, Das and Ghosh-
dastidar, 2002, Béreaux et al., 2004, Khalifeh and Clermont,
2005 and Sanjabi et al., 2010). The present work consists of
different modifications of the extrusion model formulated by
1
C. Fernandes et al.: Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding

Tadmor and Klein (1968). However there are distinctive differ-

ences between melting in reciprocating extruders and non-reci- Nomenclature
procating extruders. First, there are three stages in injection cy-
cle of reciprocating screws. This causes the full melting a empirical constant of the Carreau-Yasuda model
process to be composed of discrete stages. Unlike non-recipro- cps solid polymer specific heat capacity
cating extruders, where one simple model (linear in time area) cpm melt polymer specific heat capacity
can be applied to describe the whole process, only a non-linear db internal barrel diameter
model can be used to describe the injection cycle. Second, di internal screw diameter
there are axial movements of the screw in reciprocating extrud- ds external screw diameter
ers, when compared with non-reciprocating ones, and both the e flight width
solids and melt conveying rates through feeding are reduced E=R temperature coefficient of viscosity
because of the axial screw velocity. Third, the time for each f exponential relation of the Carreau-Yasuda model
stage is limited. For this reason the melting processes in these fb barrel friction factor of solid polymer
stages (including the rotating stage) act in a transient manner fs screw friction factor of solid polymer
as an alternative of being steady-state as in non-reciprocating h channel depth
extruders. Consequently, the resultant balance equations are a h1 channel depth of feed zone
lot more complicated in comparison with the similar ones for h2 channel depth of metering zone
extrusion. This fact is probably the most important reason be- ir infrared
cause there are less data in the literature about modeling of ks solid polymer thermal conductivity
plasticization during injection molding (Donovan, 1974; km melt polymer thermal conductivity
Lipshitz et al., 1974; Rauwendaal, 1992; Potente et al., 1993; K1 empirical constant of the Carreau-Yasuda model
Yung and Xu, 2001; Yung et al., 2003 and Steller and Iwko, L0 screw initial position
2008). Some models presented include just a few problems L1 screw final position
connected with plasticization, such as changes in solid bed pro- Linjchamber length of the injection chamber
file during the injection cycle, without taking into account the n empirical constant of the Carreau-Yasuda model
reciprocating screw movement (Rao, 1986). Rauwendaal n screw speed
(1992), described quantitatively the solids conveying, melting, Nheatbands number of heating bands
and melt conveying in a single screw extruder with both axial Ninjchamber number of intervals in the length of injection
and rotational motion of the screw. The theoretical description chamber
of this extrusion process can be considered as an extension of p number of screw flights in parallel
the theory for non-reciprocating extruders. Yung et al. (2003) Pplast back pressure
studied the transient models for the melting process in the three Q volumetric output
stages (melting, injection and stop stages) in the reciprocating s screw pitch
extruder. Finally, Steller and Iwko (2008) presented a mathe- tstop time of screw rest in the backwards position
matical model of polymer plasticating in a reciprocating screw tplast time of dynamic melting
injection molding machine that takes into account some char- T testing temperature
acteristic features of working of a real injector, such as period- T average melt temperature
ical action of the three zones screw, to-and-from screw motion T0 reference temperature
with controlled stroke and static and dynamic melting. How- Tb barrel temperature
ever, this model does not take into account the existence of a Tm melting or flow temperature
delay zone, use a simplified melting model and the equations Tnozzle nozzle temperature
of energy and momentum are solved analytically. Vsz solid bed velocity
These newest mathematical models for injection molding w channel width
are being created with high complexity but some simplifying Ws channel width at the root of the screw
assumptions were made. The most important is a semi-empiri- Wb channel width at the barrel surface
cal approach in the case of pressure calculations, if the screw as thermal diffusivity of the solid plug
channel is almost completely filled with solid polymer. df flight clearance
In this work the software available at the Department of DL incremental step in the injection chamber
Polymer Engineering of University of Minho (Gaspar-Cunha, h helix angle
2000) to model the extrusion plasticating was modified in order h average helix angle
to take into account the backwards movement of the screw, the hs helix angle at the root of the screw
presence of a non-return valve and the conduction of heat dur- hb helix angle at the barrel surface
ing the idle times. The model uses the Tadmor formulation for ’ solids conveying angle
temperature description during the plasticating and 3D tran- qs solid polymer density
sient equation of heat conduction is applied for the polymer in qm melt polymer density
the injection chamber during the idle times. In this model the k heat of fusion
computation of the pressure profile is done by force and torque g0 zero-shear viscosity
balances on a differential down channel screw element (Tad- c_ shear rate
mor and Klein, 1970). The forces include friction between the g viscosity
barrel and the solid bed, friction due to the contact of the solids

2 Intern. Polymer Processing XXIX (2014) 4

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C. Fernandes et al.: Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding

with the screw root and screw walls, normal reactions and
forces due to the pressure gradient. The modeling routine de-
veloped was used to study the influence of some important op-
erative process parameters, such as, barrel temperature profile,
screw speed, backpressure and flow rate during injection and
cycle times. Experimental assessment of the computational re-
sults was also done.
The paper is organized as follows. First, a description of the
injection molding process (injection cycle, system geometry,
operating conditions and polymer properties) is presented.
Then, the mathematical models adopted for the plasticating
and stationary phases of the injection molding process are pro-
posed and described in detail. The mathematical models are ap-
plied to a case study. Finally, the modeling results for the dy-
namic and static phases are presented and discussed and the
computational results are assessed experimentally.
2.2 System Geometry
In a typical plasticating unit an Archimedes type screw rotates
inside a heated barrel. The screw has (at least) three distinct
geometrical sections: the feed zone, where the channel depth
is constant (H1); the compression zone, where the channel
depth changes along the axis; and the metering zone, where
the channel depth is again constant but smaller (H2). Figure 2A
illustrates a portion of the screw and barrel that is used to de-
fine the geometry of a single screw extruder. The geometrical
parameters identified were characterized extensively in the lit-
erature. A simplification made is that the screw channel is un-
wrapped, as illustrated in Fig. 2B), and the calculations are per-
formed in small increments (Dz) along the z-axis (Tadmor and

2 Plasticating in Injection Molding

2.1 Injection Cycle

Injection molding is a process of polymer transformation in-

volving several steps, which are performed in an order that is
repeated at each cycle, i. e., plasticating, injection and cooling
(see Fig. 1).
During the plasticating phase, the solid polymer is trans-
ported in the screw channel due to the friction forces developed
during the screw rotation (Tadmor and Klein, 1970). Then, the
polymer melts following a specific mechanism, due to the heat
generated by friction and the heat conducted from the heated
barrel (Tadmor and Klein, 1970). The melted polymer is trans-
ported to the front of the screw were it accumulates (Tadmor
and Klein, 1970). In the injection step the screw moves forward
creating the necessary pressure so that material can pass
through the injection nozzle channel, mold supply channel,
entrance point of the cavity and fill the cavity (Donovan,
1974). Finally, the molten material inside the cavity is cooled.
During the cooling time new material can be plasticized to be
used in the next cycle (Donovan, 1974). Fig. 1. Injection moulding cycle

A) B)

Fig. 2. Geometry of a plasticating screw: A) geometrical parameters, B) unwrapped screw and coordinates

Intern. Polymer Processing XXIX (2014) 4 3

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C. Fernandes et al.: Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding

Klein, 1968, 1970; Chung, 1971; Tadmor, 1974; Torner, 1977;
Tadmor and Gogos, 1979; Agur and Vlachopulos, 1982; Za-
wadzky and Karnis, 1985 and Rao, 1986).
2.3 Operating Conditions
The barrel heating bands temperatures are identified as
Tbi ; i ¼ 1; :::; Nheatbands . Also, the nozzle can have a specific
temperature value, identified here as Tnozzle.
The other operating parameters are screw speed N, back
pressure in front of the screw during rotation (plasticization
pressure) Pplast, time of the screw rest in the backwards position
(analogous with the cooling time) tstop. This time establish the
polymer static melting in the heated part of the barrel. In con-
trast with the static melting phase, the time of dynamic melting
(rotating and withdrawing screw) tplast is not constant, but it de-
pends on process conditions, and can be calculated by:

2
Db
p DL
2
tplast ¼ ; ð1Þ
Q nomena occurring requires some physical data reflecting both
where DL is the incremental step in the injection chamber de-
fined by:
Linjchamber
DL ¼ ; ð2Þ
Ninjchamber
with Linjchamber being the length of the injection chamber and
Ninjchamber the number of intervals in which the length of injec-
tion chamber is divided. The length of the injection chamber
was calculated as the difference between channel length and
screw length. To calculate the volumetric output (Q) the algo-
rithm estimates first two initial output values using the screw
geometry in the melt conveying zone and the screw speed
(Gaspar-Cunha, 2000). Then, the calculations are performed
for small increments along the screw channel (Dz) taking into
account the functional zones (solids conveying in the hopper
and in the initial screw turns, delay, melting and melt con-
veying zones). If the difference between the pressure at the
injection chamber and the back pressure are higher than a
small pre-defined value (e), new values for outputs (Q1 and
Q2) are defined by the secant method and the computations
with the extrusion models are carried out until convergence is
reached. The final plasticating output (Q) is obtained when
the difference between the pressures is below the small differ-
ence e.
2.4 Polymer Properties
During polymer flow in the screw channel changes in the poly-
mer physical state occurs. Thus, the description of flow phe-
the transition conditions of a polymer and its properties in the
solid or liquid state. The physical, thermal and rheological ma-
terial parameters were identified in Table 1. The influence of
temperature and/or pressure in the value of melt density, melt
specific heat and viscosity can be taken into account by com-
puting their value in the small increments along the screw
channel used for the calculations (Gaspar-Cunha, 2000). The
melt density is computed from qm ¼ g0 þ g1 T þ g2 P þ g3 TP
and the melt specific heat evolves with temperature as

Property Value unit

Solid density qs 900.3 Kg/m3

Melt density g0 734.1 kg/m3
g1 –0.05 kg/m3 8C
g2 1.12 · 10–7 kg/m3 Pa
g3 1.51 · 10–12 kg/m3 8C Pa
Solid thermal conductivity ks 0.2 W/m 8C
Melt thermal conductivity km 0.17 W/m 8C
Solid specific heat capacity c ps 1 700 J/kg 8C
Melt specific heat capacity C0 2 700 J/kg 8C
C1 5 J/kg 8C
C2 –0.031 J/kg 8C2
Heat of fusion k 64 100 J/kg
Melting or flow temperature Tm 165 8C
Barrel friction of solid polymer fb 0.45
Screw friction of solid polymer fs 0.25
Viscosity g0 1 323.71 Pa/s
T0 243.3 8C
E=R 12 272.59
K1 0.0247
n 0.272
a 0.7326

Table 1. Properties of PPH 5060

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C. Fernandes et al.: Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding
Cm ¼ C0 þ C1 T þ C2 T2 , where g0 to g3 and C0 to C2 are em-
pirical constants obtained experimentally.
The rheological behavior was described by the constitutive
equation of the Carreau-Yasuda model:
g0 f
gðc_ Þ ¼ ; ð3Þ
½ 1 þ ðK1 f c_ Þa
ð a Þ
1n
where g0 means zero-shear viscosity, c_ is shear rate, gðc_ Þ re-
presents the shear rate-dependent viscosity, K1 , n and a are em-
pirical constants, and f stands for the exponential relations em-
bracing the temperature and pressure sensitivity. In this study
we have chosen the exponential expression widely used in
polymer engineering calculations and modeling of non-isother-
mal injection molding flows,
 
E 1 1
 position L0. In this position, packing and cooling of the poly-
f ¼ eR T T0 ; ð4Þ
where E/R means temperature coefficient of viscosity, T and
T0 are testing and reference temperatures, respectively.
3 Mathematical Model
3.1 Global Model
Plasticating reciprocating extruders receives the polymer from
the hopper, melts, homogenizes and injects it into the mold.
The physical phenomena developed inside the machine are
complex. They correspond to a set of sequential functional
zones that are usually identified as (see Fig. 3):
1. solids conveying (in the hopper and in the initial screw
turns);
2. delay;
3. melting;
4. melt conveying.
They are qualitatively comparable to the correspondent zones
in the extrusion process (Tadmor and Klein, 1970). Differences
for steady conditions of extrusion are that lengths and positions
of these zones change in time during the injection cycle. The
present paper describes these changes in two strictly coupled
states (see Fig. 4): at the end of screw rotation (beginning of
static melting, N ¼ 0) and at the beginning of screw rotation
Intern. Polymer Processing XXIX (2014) 4
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(beginning of dynamic melting, N > 0). During the plasticat-
ing time the screw retracts from the position L0 (initial posi-
tion) to the position L1 (final position). The screw pulls back
when the pressure ahead of the screw, which is promoted by
the conveying of molten polymer resulting from the screw rota-
tion, reaches the back pressure. The back pressure is an operat-
ing condition of the machine defined by the user. This fact im-
plies that, when the screw retracts the effect of the friction
coefficient is not so important, when compared with conduc-
tion, being for this reason ignored in the calculations. Also,
the back pressure is imposed by the machine and its value is
much higher than that of the existing friction force. Then, the
screw stops rotating and melting due only to conduction oc-
curs. Next, during injection time the material is forced to flow
inside the mold and the screw advances forward to the initial
mer in the mold will take place. This completes a single injec-
tion molding cycle.
This paper presents a modification of an extruder simulation
code (Gaspar-Cunha, 2000) in order to take into account the
backwards movement of the screw, the presence of a non–re-
turn valve, the conduction of heat during the idle times. The ex-
istence of the non-return valve is taking into account by using a
constant value for the back pressure. The global program struc-
ture of the plasticating simulation code is represented in Fig. 5.
First, the length of the injection chamber is divided into several
step intervals ðDLÞ which are given by Eq. 2. When the screw
is located in position L0 (initial position), the steady-state ex-
trusion model (Tadmor and Klein, 1970) is used to obtain the
temperature profile of the polymer in all zones, as shown in
Fig. 3. This is done iteratively by defining two initial trial val-
Fig. 3. Physical phenomena inside the plasticating injection unit
Fig. 4. Time scale in injection molding pro-
cess (tstop – cooling time, mold opening, ejec-
tion, mold closing, tplast – plasticating time, tinj
– injection time, tpack – packing time and tdelay
– delay time)
5
C. Fernandes et al.: Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding

during the plasticating

  time. For that purpose, the average melt
temperature T calculated in the previous step is used as initi-
al temperature for the subsequent step. After, the new location
of the screw is updated by reducing the length of feed zone
due to backward movement of screw. The process is repeated
until the screw reaches position L1, that is the total backward
position. In this location the screw stops and only  heat
 due to
conduction is considered during the stop time tstop that is
pre-defined by the user.

3.2 Plasticating Phase

During the plasticating phase the screw moves backward and,

for each DL, the extrusion model describing the polymer flow
along the screw is applied. In the solids conveying zone the
cross temperature profile in each differential element along
the screw channel can be described by the following equation:
qTðyÞ q2 TðyÞ
Vsz ¼ as ; ð5Þ
qz qy2
where the left term represents heat convection and the right
term represents heat conduction, Vsz is the solid bed velocity,
T is the cross temperature profile (direction y) and as is the
thermal diffusivity of the solid. The temperature of the solid
plug increases due to friction at the polymer-barrel and poly-
mer-screw walls and due to heat conduction from the barrel.
The heat fluxes due to friction on the screw root and in the bar-
rel surface, qs and qb , respectively, were calculated by the
equations:

qTðyÞ
qs ¼ kp ; ð6Þ
qy  y¼0
 
qTðyÞ qTðyÞ
qb ¼ ks þ kb ; ð7Þ
qy y¼H qy barrel
Fig. 5. Global program structure
where kp , ks and kb are, respectively, the thermal conductivity
of the screw (metal), of the solid polymer and of the barrel
(metal).
The model used for calculating the flow behavior in the film
ues for the output (Q1 and Q2) (Gaspar-Cunha, 2000) and the
and in the solid bed for the delay zone used here are based on
method explained in section 2.3. Since the pressure is relatively
the models proposed by Kacir and Tadmor (1972), which is de-
small, the effects of compressibility in the calculation were not
scribed by the equations of momentum and heat in the melt
accounted for.
film and solid bed:
Next, the screw moves backwards to position L0 þ DL, since


a quantity of melted polymer (Q) is accumulated in front of the qP q qVx ðyÞ qP qP q qVz ðyÞ
¼ g ; ¼ 0; ¼ g ;
screw. At this
 point,
 average melt temperature T and plasti- qx qy qy qy qz qz qy
cating time tplast (Eq. 1) needed to fill the chamber with Q ð8Þ
volumetric quantity of melt polymer are calculated.
The melted polymer starts to accumulate in the barrel cham- qT q2 T
ber at the front of screw and the screw retracts when the pres- qm cp Vz ðyÞ ¼ km 2 þ gc_ 2 ð9Þ
qz qy
sure reaches the back pressure (Pplast). For this polymer the heat
exchanges with the surroundings can be treated as a static heat- qT qT q2 T
ing, assuming that the rotational screw movement does not af- Vsy þ Vsz ¼ as 2 ; ð10Þ
fect the melted polymer accumulated. Then, only heating due qy qz qy
to conduction from the heated barrel bands was considered. where P is the pressure, Vx is velocity in direction x, Vz is ve-
The main difference with the modeling made in the screw locity in direction z, qm is the melt density, cp is the melt spe-
channel is it dependence from the time. The heat conduction cific heat, kmi s the melt thermal conductivity, g is the melt
equation is used to compute the polymer temperature changes viscosity, c_ is the shear rate and Vsy is solid polymer velocity

6 Intern. Polymer Processing XXIX (2014) 4

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C. Fernandes et al.: Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding

in direction c. For the viscosity calculations it was applied the where:

Carreau-Yasuda model described by Eqs. 3 and 4 with shear

Tm  Tb
rate given by: ln
Tso  Tb
"

 #12 b¼ ; ð19Þ
qVx 2 qVz 2 zm
c_ ¼ þ ð11Þ
qy qy and zm is the helical distance between the hopper and the loca-
tion where the lower and lateral melt films first appears and Tso
The relevant boundary conditions are: is the temperature of the polymer at extruder entrance. For the
  boundary conditions presented the solid polymer melts when
Vx ðy ¼ 0Þ ¼ 0 Vz ðy ¼ 0Þ ¼ Vsz
the temperature reaches the polymer melting temperature (Tm)
Vx ðy ¼ dC Þ ¼ Vbx Vz ðy ¼ dC Þ ¼ Vbz
and, due to the screw axial movement the value of the barrel
 temperature considered in the calculations is updated taking
Tðy ¼ 0Þ ¼ Tm into account the specific screw location. The solutions of those
; ð12Þ
Tðy ¼ dC Þ ¼ Tb equations were obtained by using the Crank-Nicholson finite
where dc is melt film thickness, Vbx is component x of barrel difference implicit scheme (Gaspar-Cunha, 2000). The accu-
velocity, Vbz is component z of barrel velocity, Tm is melting mulation term in the energy balance is neglected since the com-
temperature and Tb is barrel temperature. Finally, a heat bal- putational calculations are made iteratively, i. e., the final
ance over the melting interface yields: temperature that results from a single iteration is the initial


 temperature profile for the subsequent iteration.
qT  qT 
km   k ¼ qs kVsy ; ð13Þ
qy y¼HdC
s
qy y¼HdC
3.3 Stationary Phase
where qs is the solid density, c the heat of fusion and H the
channel depth. After the application of the melting models described in plasti-
For the melting and melt conveying zones a non-isothermal cating phase, the temperature of melted polymer accumulated
two-dimensional flow of a non-Newtonian fluid in the presence in front of screw, for each small Dz, is the average of the tem-
of convection is considered. During melting, the momentum perature of the accumulated material. Then, a new axis system
and energy equation takes the form: is considered, being the origin located in the center of the cylin-

 der formed by the injection chamber. Then, the evolution of
qP q qVx ðyÞ qP
¼ g ; ¼ 0; temperature is calculated by solving the energy conservation
qx qy qy qy
equation, given by:



2 
qP q qVz ðx; yÞ q qVz ðx; yÞ qT q T q2 T q2 T
¼ g þ g ; ð14Þ q m cp ¼ km þ þ : ð20Þ
qz qy qx qy qy qt qx2 qy2 qz2

2  The governing Eq. 20 is solved with the finite volume method
qT q T q2 T
qm cp Vz ðyÞ ¼ km þ þ gc_ 2 ; ð15Þ described in Nóbrega (2004). Basically, the solution domain
qz qx2 qy2
is decomposed in many adjacent control volumes over which
where the shear rate is given by: those equations are integrated and transformed into algebraic
"


 #12 form (Khalifeh, 2009). The discretized system of equations is
qVx 2 qVz 2 qVz 2 solved iteratively, for the dependent variable T, with conjugate
c_ ¼ þ þ ð16Þ gradient solvers.
qy qx qy

The boundary conditions are:

8
> Vz ðx ¼ 0Þ ¼ 0 4 Case Study
 >
<
Vx ðy ¼ 0Þ ¼ 0 Vz ðx ¼ Wb Þ ¼ Vsz
Vx ðy ¼ dC Þ ¼ Vbx > Vz ðy ¼ 0Þ ¼ 0 The modeling routine developed was validated though the
>
:
Vz ðy ¼ HÞ ¼ Vbz comparison of the computational results with experimental
measurements of the temperature in the front of screw nozzle.
8 Temperature measurements, in the existing experimental con-
>
> Tðx ¼ 0Þ ¼ Ts
< ditions, are not an easy task. The measurements were made
Tðx ¼ Wb Þ ¼ Tm
; ð17Þ using both an infrared camera (ThermaCAM SC640) and an in-
>
> Tðy ¼ 0Þ ¼ Ts
: frared thermometer (model Fluke 62 Mini). The eventual dif-
Tðy ¼ HÞ ¼ Tb
ferences between the two experimental methods used are due
where Wb is melt pool width and Ts is screw temperature at z to the way how the measurements were made. The IR camera
location. An empirical equation suggested by Cox and Fenner measurements were obtained from the images taken immedi-
(1980) was adopted for determination of the screw tempera- ately after the polymer emerges from the front of the screw
ture: nozzle. The IR thermometer measurements were made after
melted polymer emerges from the injection nozzle, which are
Ts ðzÞ ¼ Tb ½1  expðb zÞ
þ Tso expðb zÞ ð18Þ made some instants later than the IR camera measurements. A

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C. Fernandes et al.: Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding

study concerning the influence of operative process parame-

ters, such as, screw rotation speed, backpressure, barrel tem-
peratures and injection chamber length, was also performed.
The polymer used in this work was a polypropylene, PPH
5060 from TOTAL Petrochemicals. Table 1 gives a summary
of the relevant polymer properties used in the calculations.
The computational runs carried out are shown in Table 2.
For the case of the viscosity properties, the Carreau-Yasuda
parameters (g0 , E/R, K1, n and a) were determined at typical
injection shear rates (between 10 and 1 000 s–1) and tempera-
tures (190, 216.7, 243.3 and 270 8C). Cross-WLF viscosity pa-
rameters of PPH 5060 obtained in Moldflow database allows
computing the viscosity parameters for Carreau-Yasuda mod- Fig. 6. Geometry of the injection plasticating screw used in the experi-
el by fitting the values between the two viscosity models. Car- ments
reau-Yasuda viscosity model is used in our simulations in-
stead of the Cross-WLF model due to the implementation of
Carreau-Yasuda model in the originally steady-state extruder
routines. Property Value unit
An injection machine, Klockner Ferromatic K85 of 85 tons
of clamp force, fitted with a conventional three-zone screw Internal barrel diameter – Db 41.2 mm
was used. The injection machine is able to control 4 indepen- Internal screw diameter – Di 28.8 mm in feed zone
dent barrel temperature zones plus the nozzle, as shown in [29.1, 35.3] mm in
Fig. 6. Table 3 presents a summary of the geometric charac- compression zone
teristics (as described in section 2.2) for the injection plasti- 35.8 mm in metering zone
cating screw. Channel depth (H1) in the feed zone, channel External screw diameter – Ds 41 mm
depth (H2) in the metering zone and flight clearance ðdf Þ can Screw pitch – S 41 mm
be calculated using the geometrical values presented in Ta- Flight width – e 5 mm
ble 3.
Table 3. Geometric values of injection plasticating screw

Runs Screw speed min–1 Back pressure MPa Barrel temperature profile8C Length of injection
chambermm

1 50 15 190-200-210-220-220 100
2 60 15 190-200-210-220-220 100
3 100 15 190-200-210-220-220 100
4 150 15 190-200-210-220-220 100
5 200 15 190-200-210-220-220 100
6 100 3 190-200-210-220-220 100
7 100 8 190-200-210-220-220 100
8 100 15 190-200-210-220-220 100
9 100 20 190-200-210-220-220 100
10 100 30 190-200-210-220-220 100
11 100 15 185-187-187-190-190 100
12 100 15 187-190-190-200-200 100
13 100 15 190-200-210-220-220 100
14 100 15 210-220-230-240-240 100
15 100 15 240-250-260-270-270 100
16 100 15 190-200-210-220-220 15
17 100 15 190-200-210-220-220 30
18 100 15 190-200-210-220-220 60
19 100 15 190-200-210-220-220 100
20 100 15 190-200-210-220-220 150

Table 2. Set of computational runs

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C. Fernandes et al.: Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding

5 Results and Discussion
In this section, three different categories of results were pre-
sented and discussed. Initially, typical plasticating modeling
results were shown (corresponding to run 3 of Table 1). These
results includes pressure, solid bed and average melt tempera-
ture profiles along the plasticating screw. Then, the melt tem-
perature profile obtained from the 3D transient equation of heat
conduction during the static phase were presented and dis-
cussed. The packing time used in the calculations was 10 s,
i. e., the time during which the screw stops in the forward posi-
tion. Finally, the influence of the operating conditions, such as,
screw speed, backpressure, set barrel temperature profiles and
injection chamber length, in the evolution of the average melt
temperature in front of the screw nozzle was studied. These re-
sults (average melt temperature) were assessed experimentally
through measurements made using both an IR camera and an
IR thermometer.
represented by the ratio between the solid bed width and chan-
nel widths, i. e., when X/W is null the polymer is all melted.
Thus, melting starts earlier and is faster (see Fig. 8B) since
due to the screw backwards the compression zone of the screw
also moves back, which helps the melting process. Finally,
average melt temperature (see Fig. 8C) decreases with the
iterations because the viscous dissipation decreases as the pres-
sure is smaller and also because the channel length travel of the
polymer decreases when the screw moves backward.
The results for the static phase, i. e., for the situation in
which the polymer reaches the injection chamber during the
successive iterations, were presented in Fig. 9. As referred
above, these results were obtained by the resolution of the 3D
transient equation of heat conduction. In this figure only a

5.1 Plasticating Results

 
As shown in Fig. 7 the number of intervals Ninjchamber , in
which the length of injection chamber is divided, has no effect
in the average melt temperature of the polymer in injection
chamber. Thus, due to the lower computation time the results
presented below were made using 6 intervals, being the calcu-
lations made until the screw reaches the backward position.
Figure 8 shows the pressure, solid bed (X/W) and average A)
melt temperature profiles developed during the dynamic phase,
i. e., the screw backwards movement computed in the plasticat-
ing iterations. The pressure increases along the screw channel
and the maximum value is attained at the end of the compres-
sion zone. The value of pressure at the end of the screw corre-
sponds to the back pressure defined by the user in the machine.
As expected, the maximum pressure (see Fig. 8A) decreases
with the iterations since the length of the screw is smaller and
back pressure is maintained constant. The solid bed profile is

B)

C)

Fig. 8. Effect of the screw backwards movement in the pressure profile

Fig. 7. Effect of the number of intervals in which the length of injec- (A), in the solid bed profile (B) and in the average melt temperature
tion chamber is divided on the average melt temperature profile (C)

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C. Fernandes et al.: Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding
Fig. 9. Effect of the screw backwards movement in the melt temperature profiles of the polymer in the injection chamber (interactions 0, 2, 4 and 6)
transversal cut made in the intermediate position of the x axis
was made. As can be seen, during the successive iterations the
maximum value of the melt temperature approximates to the
value of last heating band. Also, for the accumulated melt tem-
perature just before injection (end of static phase) we can state
that is more homogeneous than the one present in the earlier
iterations of static plasticization phase. This results of the heat
due to conduction since the time that the polymer spends in
the chamber is increasing. As a consequence, the values of the
average melt temperature in the injection chamber (as shown
in Fig. 10) have, also, the same behavior.
5.2 Experimental Assessment
The initially emissivity of both, the IR camera and thermo-
meter, was adjusted by using an initial temperature of the poly-
10
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mer surface measured with both devices, respectively, Tcam and
Ttherm. This allowed, using the software of the IR camera, to ad-
just the emissivity parameter. The computational (before and
after the static calculations made) and experimental results
showing the effect of screw speed in melt temperatures in the
injection chamber are compared in Fig. 11. As expected, the
average melt temperature increases slightly with screw speed
due to the increase in the viscous heat dissipation. However,
all these values are approximately equal to the set barrel tem-
perature of the last heating zone, which is where the barrel
chamber is located. This means that during the static phase,
and mainly for high screw speeds, the heat generated by vis-
cous dissipation during the plasticating phase is transferred to
the barrel. The temperature of the melt in the chamber de-
creases as can be observed in Fig. 11.
The existing differences between the two experimental
methods used are due to the way how the measurements were
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C. Fernandes et al.: Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding
made. The measurements made by the IR thermometer are
made some instants later than the IR camera measurements.
These instants are enough to the polymer reduce the tempera-
ture to the values observed in the case of the IR thermometer.
Thus, it is possible to conclude that the IR camera measure-
ment is a more efficient method. However, the average tem-
perature decreases with screw speed but, for the case of higher
screw speeds, a comparison with the computational results
shows differences lower than 5 %. These are the differences
obtained when comparing the computational results after the
static phase and the IR camera measurements. The experimen-
tal methods available and the difficulty in doing those mea-
surements in the injection machine, contributes, also, for the
differences observed. Hence, the computational results are able
to replicate the correct behavior concerning the melt tempera-
ture inside the injection chamber.
Figure 12 shows the effect of back pressure in the average
melt temperature, using a constant screw speed of 100 min–1.
The behavior of the computational results and the IR camera
measurements is similar, as the average melt temperature does
Fig. 10. Effect of the screw backwards movement in the average melt
temperature of the polymer in the injection chamber
Fig. 11. Effect of screw speed in the average melt temperature: circle
– computation before static phase; diamond – computation after static
phase; square – IR thermometer (1 to 2 s later); triangles – IR camera
(1 to 2 s later)
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not change with back pressure. The differences are the identi-
cal to those of Fig. 11 and were discussed therein.
The effect of set barrel temperatures is shown in Fig. 13. The
behavior observed for the computational and experimental re-
sults is very similar. However, for a linear change on the set
barrel temperatures, a non-linear behavior is observed for the
average melt temperature in both, the computational and the
experimental results. Also, the average melt temperature in
the chamber is very similar to that of the temperature after the
plasticating, except in the case of the higher set barrel tempera-
ture for which is higher. This is what is expected since when
the barrel temperature is increased the viscous dissipation is
smaller and the melt temperature in the chamber is also lower.
Finally, the length of injection chamber, shown in Fig. 14,
has no effects on the average melt temperature in both cases,
computational and experimental results.
In all cases shown the differences between the computa-
tional results and the IR camera measurements are below 5 %,
which validates the computational program developed for the
Fig. 12. Effect of back pressure in the average melt temperature: cir-
cle – computation before static phase; diamond – computation after
static phase; square – IR thermometer; triangles – IR camera
(N = 100 min–1)
Fig. 13. Effect of barrel temperatures in the average melt tempera-
ture: circle – computation before static phase; diamond – computation
after static phase; square – IR thermometer; triangles – IR camera
(N = 100 min–1)
11
C. Fernandes et al.: Modeling of Plasticating Injection Molding
Fig. 14. Effect of length of injection chamber in the average melt tem-
perature: circle – computation before static phase; diamond – compu-
tation after static phase; square – IR thermometer; triangles – IR cam-
era (N = 100 min–1)
plasticating of the injection molding process, including both
the rotation and the static phases.
6 Conclusions
In this work a mathematical model for the modeling of the
plasticating phase of the injection molding process is proposed.
This model is a modification of the steady-state extrusion mod-
el previously developed, by taking into account the backwards
movement of the screw, the presence of a non-return valve
and the conduction of heat during the idle times.
The validity of the model is assessed experimentally using
two different methods (an IR camera and an IR thermometer)
for measuring the average melt temperature that leaves the in-
jection chamber. The effect of some operative variables (e. g.,
screw speed, backpressure, set barrel temperature profiles and
injection chamber length) in the average melt temperature is
presented. The average temperature increases slightly with
screw speed being the value obtained very similar to that of
the last heating zone. Back pressure and the length of the injec-
tion chamber have no effect on the melt temperature. The line-
ar variation of the set barrel temperature produces a non-linear
variation on the melt temperature.
The experimental measurements made validated the compu-
tational results, as the differences obtained for the average melt
temperature are below 5 % when the IR camera method is used.
A complete simulation of all the (real) injection moulding
cycle is possible if we integrate commercially available mould
filling codes with the plasticating routine developed in this
work. This new tool make possible the optimization of the pro-
cessing conditions for a given thermomechanical environment
as need in an industrial context.
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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Portuguese Fundação para a

Ciência e Tecnologia under grant SFRH/BD/28479/2006 and Bibliography
PEst-C/CTM/LA0025/2013 (Projecto Estratégico – LA 25 – DOI 10.3139/217.2862
2013-2014 – Strategic Project – LA 25 – 2013-2014). Intern. Polymer Processing
XXIX (2014) 4; page 1 – 13
ª Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KG
Date received: September 04, 2013 ISSN 0930-777X
Date accepted: May 18, 2014

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