Abstract
Two algorithms are developed to predict the polymer melt front advancement in the thin plate with ribs of semicircular cross section. In the first method, rod-like elements of equivalent hydraulic diameter representing a semicircular rib are superimposed on the triangular shell element mesh used for the thin section. In the second approach, rectangular elements having the same width as the diameter of the semicircular rib and representing mixed one- and two-dimensional flow characteristics are used and interlinked with triangular elements. In both algorithms, control volume /finite element formulation is applied to trace the melt front advancement. Both simulations result in similar predictions and also show reasonably good consistency with experimental observation.