A physical modeling and a two-dimensional numerical simulation of the injection-molding of a disk cavity by using a hybrid finite element method (FEM) and finite difference method (FDM) are presented. Three stages of the injection-molding cycle-filling, packing, and cooling-are included. The total residual stresses are taken to be a sum of the flow stresses calculated using a compressible nonlinear viscoelastic constitutive equation and the thermal stresses calculated using a linear viscoelastic constitutive equation. The total residual birefringence is taken to be the sum of the flow birefringence related to the flow stresses through the stress-optical rule, and the thermal birefringence related to the thermal stresses through the photoviscoelastic constitutive equation. The Tait equation is used to describe the P-V T relationship. The simulation shows that without packing the birefringence in the surface layer of moldings, with its maximum near the surface, is caused by the frozen-in flow birefringence (flow stresses) and in the core region by the frozen-in thermal birefringence (thermal stresses). With packing, a second birefringence maximum appears between the center and the position of the first maximum due to flow in the packing stage. The predicted birefringence profiles and extinction angle profiles are found to be in fair agreement with corresponding measurements in literature for disk moldings. (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.