A FRACTAL TWO-PHASE FLOW MODEL FOR THE FIBER MOTION IN A POLYMER FILLING PROCESS

Abstract

This paper suggests a fractal two-phase fluid model for the polymer melt filling process to deal effectively with the unsmooth front interface. An infinitesimal fluid element model in a fractal space is proposed to establish the governing equations according to the conservation laws in fluid mechanics, the fractal divergence and fractal Laplace operator are defined. The unsmooth interface is solved numerically, and fibers’ motion properties on the interface are also elucidated. Moreover, the distribution of fibers on the interface at different stages shows the fractal property of the fibers’ motion. However, the motion of fibers is affected by the flow of macroscopic polymer melt, and the fiber orientation in the interface shows a certain statistical regularity. Based on the characters of fiber orientation, the fractal interface can be used for the optimal design of the polymer melt filling process.