Particle Migration of Quasi-Steady Flow in Concentrated Suspension for Powder Injection Molding

Abstract

A hybrid FEM/FDM algorithm for particle migration of quasi-steady flow in concentrated suspension materials is proposed in this study. This hybrid FEM/FDM algorithm in which the planar variables, such as pressure field, are described in terms of finite element method, and gapwise variables of temperature, density concentration and time derivatives are expressed by finite difference method. The particle concentration inhomogeneities can be predicted, which is ignored by the existing injection molding simulation packages. Simulation results indicated that powder concentration variation could be significant in practical processing in PIM.