FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATION OF NON-ISOTHERMAL LOW REYNOLDS NUMBER NON-NEWTONIAN FLOWS

A general-purpose finite element program was used to solve the equations of conservation of mass, momentum and energy for slow viscous flows of non-Newtonian fluids. The central focus of this work involves the simulation of polymer melt flows through process equipment. Several types of flow geometries were studied, e.g. two- dimensional, tubular, radial and flows in irregularly shaped channels. Some problems involved free surfaces, e.g. in the determination of extrudate swell and fountain flow in injection mold filling. Considerable attention was devoted to the determination of temperature rise due to viscous dissipation and to the effect of heat transfer on flow patterns.