We have investigated slippage effect on melt flow of various polyolefins and their compounds in modular intermeshing co-rotating twin screw extruder, which include high density polyethylene (HDPE), isotactic polypropylene (iPP), isotactic polybutene-1 (PB1), isotactic poly(4-methyl pentene-1) (P4MP1) and two different kinds of particle filled polypropylenes (PP/carbon black and PP/Silica). To induce slippage during the process, octadecanoic acid was introduced on the second port of the extruder. Length of fill, die pressure and screw characteristics in twin screw extruder were studied under varying processing parameters: volumetric flow rate, screw rotational speed, and die geometry.
The effort to account for these variations on slippage effect was combined with considerations of the structures of polyolefins and polarities of fillers. One of five different polyolefins, CPO, has different backbone structure and the others have different pendant group. The order of pendant group size from small to big was found out to be HDPE > PP > PB1 > P4MP1. Two different kinds of inorganic particle fillers (carbon black and silica) were compounded to study the effect of polarity of inorganic particles on the slippage behavior. Carbon black represented non-polar filler and silica represented polar filler.
In order to make objective and quantitative predictions in twin screw extrusion process, it was necessary to figure out slip velocity – shear stress relation since the boundary conditions on the barrel, screw and die surfaces are determined by slip velocities which are only can be predicted from applied shear stress fields. From the Mooney’s method, we could find out slip velocity – shear stress relations using three different diameters of capillary dies having same L/D ratio. A numerical method (Flow Analysis Network method) was applied to simulate the effect of slippage on the flow in twin screw channel based on the slip velocity and shear stress relations obtained from capillary experiments. To confirm the simulation, length of fills for various process conditions were predicted by simulation and they were compared with experimental results.
In addition, the screw characteristics and flow patterns for two different special mixing elements (SME, ZME) were obtained to investigate the mechanism and functions of these elements using the FAN method. The simulation of these special mixing elements were compared with conventional screw elements which having same helix angle, diameter and length.