Velocity result

The Velocity result shows the magnitude of flow velocity in every laminate, at every element, at several times during the filling and packing phases.

The result can be animated over time up to when the file was written, animated across the part thickness at a specified time, and displayed as an XY plot over time or across part thickness.

Note: For compression-type molding processes, this result is plotted displayed on the deformed mesh as the default setting. With this default setting, if you click through the time steps you can watch the polymer as it is compressed into the part shape. To turn it off, so that all you see is the result on the part, right-click the result, select Properties and uncheck Display on deformed mesh.

Note: The Velocity result is an intermediate profiled result, meaning its animation by default is through time and the scale by default is the minimum to maximum of the entire range of the result.

Using this result

The velocity result can be used to determine areas with high or low flow rates. High velocity values for a section of a model indicates there is a high flow rate, meaning there could be shear heating problems. Very high local velocity values can cause the temperature to drastically increase in that area, resulting in surface blemishes, unbalanced filling, and packing and warpage problems.

If polymer flows quickly through one section of the mold, and flows slowly through another section of the mold, it could indicate filling defects such as hesitation or racetrack effects. Areas of the mold with very low velocities for most of the filling phase could indicate overpacking.

Things to look for

Areas of varying velocity, indicating:

• Overpacking.
• Hesitation.
• Racetrack Effect.
• Unbalanced Flow.