Modeling cell nucleation during microcellular injection molding

This paper presents a numerical simulation to predict nucleation and cell growth through the injection molding process. The model presented is based on a coupled solidification-nucleation process that considers mold and melt temperature, injection pressure, and material properties. Comparison of numerical prediction to experimental results was excellent at the center of the part, but under-predicted the cell size toward its outer surface. From numerical simulation, the influence of varying processing conditions on the cell structure is quantified.