Residence time distribution in screw extruders

Reactive Janus Particle Compatibilizer with Adjustable Structure and Optimal Interface Location for Compatibilization of Highly Immiscible Polymer Blends

Highly immiscible blend materials with distinctive and excellent properties play a key role in meeting the application needs, especially in extreme environments, and reactive nanoparticles are used to increase the interface adhesion and optimize the morphology of highly immiscible blending. However, these reactive nanoparticles tend to aggregate and even agglomerate during reactive blending, which significantly deteriorates their compatibilization efficiency. Herein, reactive Janus particles with the epoxy group and various siloxane molecular long chain grafting ratios (E-JP-PDMS) were synthesized using SiO₂@PDVB Janus particles (JP) and used as compatibilizers for polyamide and methyl vinyl silicone elastomer (PA/MVQ) blends, which were highly immiscible. The effects of the structure of E-JP-PDMS Janus nanoparticles on their location at the interfaces between the PA and MVQ as well as their compatibilization efficiency for the PA/MVQ blends were investigated. The location and dispersion of E-JP-PDMS at the interfaces were improved by increasing the PDMS content in E-JP-PDMS. The average diameter of the MVQ domains of the PA/MVQ (70/30, w/w) was 79.5 μm and was reduced to 5.3 μm in the presence of 3.0 wt % of the E-JP-PDMS with 65 wt % PDMS. As a comparison, it was 45.1 μm in the presence of 3.0 wt % of a commercial compatibilizer (ethylene-butylacylate-maleic anhydride copolymer, denoted as EBAMAH), which provides a guideline for the design and preparation of efficient compatibilizers for highly immiscible polymer blends.

Direct Method for Deconvoluting Two Residence Time Distribution Curves

A pair of related Residence Time Distribution (RTD) curves obtained experimentally during extrusion, are deconvoluted using a methodology based on the concept of equivalent residence times. Two points of two RTD curves are equivalent when the same percentage of tracer has exited the system. The time scale of the deconvoluted curve is obtained by subtracting the two equivalent time values of the available RTD curves. The method was tested using simulated pulse-shaped RTD curves and also carrying out measurements on a twin screw extruder. Despite the experimental errors involved, the two tests seem to demonstrate the usefulness of the approach.

Mechanistic modeling of modular co-rotating twin-screw extruders

In this study, we present a one-dimensional (1D) model of the metering zone of a modular, co-rotating twin-screw extruder for pharmaceutical hot melt extrusion (HME). The model accounts for filling ratio, pressure, melt temperature in screw channels and gaps, driving power, torque and the residence time distribution (RTD). It requires two empirical parameters for each screw element to be determined experimentally or numerically using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The required Nusselt correlation for the heat transfer to the barrel was determined from experimental data. We present results for a fluid with a constant viscosity in comparison to literature data obtained from CFD simulations. Moreover, we show how to incorporate the rheology of a typical, non-Newtonian polymer melt, and present results in comparison to measurements. For both cases, we achieved excellent agreement. Furthermore, we present results for the RTD, based on experimental data from the literature, and found good agreement with simulations, in which the entire HME process was approximated with the metering model, assuming a constant viscosity for the polymer melt.

Sistema portátil para medida on-line da distribuição de tempo de residência na extrusão

A Curva de Distribuição de Tempos de Residência - CDTR tem sido largamente usada para caracterização do tipo de fluxo em extrusoras, sendo que medidas "on-line" permitem diagnosticar de modo muito rápido problemas como desgaste entre a rosca e o barril da extrusora, estagnação do material e outros. A CDTR pode ser determinada fazendo-se uso da técnica de estímulo de pulso único, onde um traçador é introduzido no sistema em um dado instante e sua concentração é estimada na saída. Este artigo propõe um sistema portátil de medida "on-line" feito através da variação da luz transmitida medida com um detector constituído por uma fonte de radiação visível e uma célula fotoelétrica e um software de coleta e tratamento de dados. Usando-se este sistema em uma extrusora de dupla rosca co-rotacional interpenetrante, pode-se verificar que a CDTR é muito mais sensível à variações na taxa de alimentação do que da velocidade de rotação da rosca e que as frações mais lentas do traçador podem demorar quatro vezes mais que as mais rápidas para saírem. Aumento na velocidade de rotação da rosca e/ou redução na taxa de alimentação aumenta o fluxo axial alargando a CDTR.