Numerical simulation of liquid crystalline polymer flow into two-dimensional thin cavity moulds

In this paper, flows of liquid crystalline polymers into two‐dimensional thin cavity moulds are simulated. The flows are modelled by Ericksen–Leslie equations of motion in the high viscosity limit. An elliptic pressure equation is derived under Hele–Shaw approximations, and the non‐isothermal natures of the flow are modelled. The equations are solved using the finite‐difference technique. A new boundary‐mapping technique is developed in this study to solve the difficulty in the finite‐difference treatment of arbitrarily shaped boundaries, which possess no natural coordinate system. This new method avoids the difficult mesh control in the body‐fitted mapping process and makes the mapping process easy to implement. It can also solve the problems caused by the uneven distribution of grid nodes in the traditional body‐fitted mapping technique. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.