Record Details

Extrudate swell of linear and branched polyethylenes: ALE simulations and comparison with experiments

DSpace at IIT Bombay

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Extrudate swell of linear and branched polyethylenes: ALE simulations and comparison with experiments
 
Creator GANVIR, V
GAUTHAM, BP
POL, H
BHAMLA, MS
SCLESI, L
THAOKAR, R
LELE, A
MACKLEY, M
 
Subject FINITE-ELEMENT-METHOD
POM-POM MODEL
CONSTITUTIVE-EQUATIONS
NUMERICAL-SIMULATION
POLYMER MELTS
DENSITY POLYETHYLENE
CONTRACTION FLOWS
CAPILLARY DIES
PREDICTION
GROWTH
Extrudate swell
ALE-FEM
XPP
PTT
MultiPass Rheometer
Flow birefringence
PSD
 
Description Extrudate swell is a common phenomenon observed in the polymer extrusion industry. Accurate prediction of the dimensions of an extrudate is important for appropriate design of dies for profile extrusion applications. Prediction of extrudate swell has been challenging due to (i) difficulties associated with accurate representation of the constitutive behavior of polymer melts, and (ii) difficulties associated with the simulation of free surfaces, which requires special techniques in the traditionally used Eulerian framework. In a previous work we had argued that an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) based finite element formulation may have advantages in simulating free surface deformations such as in extrudate swell. In the present work we reinforce this argument by comparing our ALE simulations with experimental data on the extrudate swell of commercial grades of linear polyethylene (LLDPE) and branched polyethylene (LOPE). Rheological behavior of the polymers was characterized in shear and uniaxial extensional deformations, and the data was modeled using either the Phan-Thien Tanner (PTT) model or the eXtended Pom-Pom (XPP) model. Additionally, flow birefringence and pressure drop measurements were done using a 10:1 contraction-expansion (CE) slit geometry in a MultiPass Rheometer. Simulated pressure drop and contours of the principal stress difference were compared with experimental data and were found to match well. This provided an independent test for the accuracy of the ALE code and the constitutive equations for simulating a processing-like flow. The polymers were extruded from long (L/D=30) and short (L/D=10) capillaries dies at 190 degrees C. ALE simulations were performed for the same extrusion conditions and the simulated extrudate swell showed good agreement with the experimental data. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 
Publisher ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
 
Date 2012-06-26T07:19:04Z
2012-06-26T07:19:04Z
2011
 
Type Article
 
Identifier JOURNAL OF NON-NEWTONIAN FLUID MECHANICS,166(1-2)12-24
0377-0257
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnnfm.2010.10.001
http://dspace.library.iitb.ac.in/jspui/handle/100/14117
 
Language English