Numerical Approach for the Assessment of Micro-Textured Walls Effects on Rubber Injection Moulding

Micro-surface texturing of elastomeric seals is a validated method to improve the friction and wear characteristics of the seals. In this study, the injection process of high-viscosity elastomeric materials in moulds with wall microprotusions is evaluated. To this end, a novel CFD methodology is developed and implemented in OpenFOAM to address rubber flow behaviour at both microscale and macroscale. The first approach allows analyzing the flow perturbation induced by a particular surface texture and generate results to calculate an equivalent wall shear stress that is introduced into the macroscale case through reduced order modelling. The methodology is applied to simulate rubber injection in textured moulds in an academic case (straight pipe) and a real case (D-ring seal mould). In both cases, it is shown that textured walls do not increase the injection pressure and therefore the manufacturing process is not adversely affected.