Ibrahim Busuladzic

Abstract

Modeling of the mixing elements in extrusion by boundary element method

Ibrahim Busuladzic - 30 january 2004

In order to obtain new plastic materials, polymer mixing is a very commonly used process. Polymer processing using single-screw extrusion makes it possible by modifying the screw of extrusion. For this reason, the Maddock mixing head is used in order to study its effect on quality of the mixing. In this work, the dispersive mixing is especially studied. The experimental part of this project studies the dispersion of the secondary phase in the polymer matrix. Beside the experimental study, the numerical methods can be used to provide more detailed information on the mixing flows. In this study the Boundary Element Method (BEM) is used. Whereas, the polymer flows exhibits non-Newtonians behaviors and consequently non-linear constitutive equation, the BEM simulations have take that into account. The classical BEM enables to solve this type of problems. Specific techniques have to be developed in order to adapt the BEM resolution. For that, the technique of multi domain decomposition together with the Dual Reciprocity Method (DRM) has been developed. Software called "POLY_BEM" has been developed based upon BEM. Newtonian and non-Newtonian computations have been performed in 3D and 2D respectively. The dispersion performances of mixing devices are calculated using the flow number definition.
In order to validate these results, preliminary comparisons have been carried out showing the beneficial effect of the mixing head.
The polymer flow in specific zones of the mixing head (the entry and the exit of the passage between channels) exhibits elongational flows improving dispersion more than in other zones.

Keywords:
Boundary element method, BEM, multi domain, DRM, single screw extrusion, polymer blends, dispersion.

Last modified: 11/23/2005 03:32 AM