Materials insight

Elongational Viscosity of LDPEs and Polystyrenes using Entrance Loss Data

For two low-density polyethylenes and two polystyrenes, axisymmetric and planar elongational viscosities are estimated using entrance loss data from capillary and slit rheometers, respectively. The elongational viscosity is estimated by optimizing the values of various parameters in the Sarkar–Gupta elongational viscosity model such that the entrance loss predicted by a finite element simulation agrees with the corresponding experimental data. The predicted entrance loss is in good agreement with the experimental data at high flow rates. The difference in the experimental and predicted entrance loss at lower flow rates might have been caused by large error in the experimental data in this range.

K. Walczak, M. Gupta, K. A. Koppi, J. Dooley, and M. A. Spalding, Polymer Engineering and Science, February 2008, Vol. 48, 223 – 232.

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PolyXtrue

Plastic Flow’s extrusion die design software, polyXtrue, is based upon a unique and proprietary theory that simulates flow of polymers taking into account not only the shear viscosity, but also the elongational viscosity of the polymer.  To simulate a multilayer flow during coextrusion, polyXtrue uses a newly developed algorithm, called Mesh Partitioning Technique, which allows coextrusion simulation without changing the finite element mesh as the shape of different polymer layers change during simulation.  Thereby, allowing simulation of the flow even in highly complex coextrusion dies.

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