Today, hot embossing and injection molding belong to the established plastic molding processes in microengineering. Based on experimental findings, a variety of microstructures have been replicated so far using the processes. However, with increasing requirements regarding the embossing surface and the simultaneous decrease of the structure size down into the nanorange, increasing know-how is needed to adapt hot embossing to industrial standards. To reach this objective, a German-Canadian cooperation project has been launched to study hot embossing theoretically by a process simulation and experimentally. The present publication shall report about the first results of the simulation-the modeling and simulation of large area replication based on an eight in. microstructured mold.

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During suction blow molding process, the extruded parison undergoes twisting deformation within the mold cavity, as the air drawing flow around the deforming parison exerts non‐uniform shear stresses on its surface. Such twisting deformation can compromise the specific radial and circumferential variations in parison thickness that are intentionally generated during extrusion. This research is devoted in developing a fluid–structure interaction model for predicting parison deformation during suction blow molding process, with a specific emphasis on the suction stage. A fluid flow model, based on Hele‐Shaw approximations, is formulated to simulate the air drag force exerted on the parison surface. The rheology of the material of the parison is assumed to obey the viscoelastic K‐BKZ model. As the suction process also involves the sliding of the parison within the mold cavity, a modified Coulomb's law of dry friction is used to simulate the frictional contact between parison and mold. The numerical results of this study allowed identifying a clear correlation between the twisting deformation undergone by the parison during the suction stage, also observed experimentally and the design parameters, namely, the air drawing speed, the geometry of the duct mold cavity, and the parison/mold eccentricity. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:418–434, 2019. © 2018 Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada

We present in this paper various iterative methods for the solution of large linear and non-linear systems resulting from the discretization of the generalized Stokes problem. A second-order (O(h 2 )) P 2 − P 1 mixed ÿnite element is used for the approximation of the velocity and the pressure. Solution strategies based on conjugate gradient-like methods, the Uzawa's and Arrow-Hurwicz's methods are presented. Schur complement methods are also explored in the context of a hierarchical decomposition of the velocity ÿeld. The ever present preconditioning problem is also addressed. The performance of these iterative methods will be discussed on complex ows of industrial interest.

When a polymer is extruded freely from a rectangular die of large cross‐sectional aspect ratio, wrinkles are observed. While not present in extruded Newtonian materials, such wrinkles develop in extruded viscoelastic sheets and are understood as an elastic stress‐driven instability. The present study is devoted in developing a transient finite element method, which combines the matrix‐logarithm‐based formulation of the conformation tensor and the single‐phase level set method, for simulating wrinkles that form during sheet extrusion of viscoelastic fluids. Numerical analyses of sheet extrusion were conducted over a wide range of flow rate and width‐to‐thickness ratio of the die exit cross section, χ, to determine critical conditions for the onset of wrinkling of extruded sheets. For large aspect ratios, that is, χ >> 1, wrinkles develop at moderate extrusion flow rate, corresponding to a Weissenberg number of about 29. Calculations based on Rayleigh's energy method show that the critical compressive stress, σc, for the onset of wrinkling of an elastic sheet scales like σc~1/χ2, with a significant drop for χ >> 1. As next to the die exit lip, compressive normal stresses are induced in the extruded sheet, wrinkling will take place for large χ (σc being small), in accordance with numerical predictions.