TD1

Part I

(a short reminder of the course)

(5 min of group discussion + 10 min of discussion with teachers)

1. Please give one or two examples of products made by an extrusion process and
point out their geometrical characteristics.
2. How does a screw extruder work to manufacture such products? What are the
basic functions a screw extruder ought to ensure to make them?

Part II

MFI

(20 min of group discussion + 40 min of discussion with teachers)

A mass of 2.16 kg (denoted as m1) is applied to a piston push a polymer melt in a
cylindrical reservoir of 20 mm in diameter (dreservoir) through a die of 2.095 mm in
diameter (denoted as ddie) and 8.00 mm in length (denoted as Ldie) (see Figure 1).
Under the specified conditions, the polymer melt behaves as a Newtonian fluid and
has a volumetric mass of 0.9 g/cm3(denoted as ρ).
Weight

Piston

Polymer
melt

Die

Extrudate

(1) It is found that the amount of the polymer melt coming out of the die for a time
interval of 10 min (denoted as m2) is 2.5 g. Please calculate the average velocity
of the polymer melt, uavg, the pressure drop in the die (from the entrance to the
exit), ∆P, and the viscosity of the polymer melt, µ.
(2) Please calculate the average velocity of the polymer melt and the pressure drop
in the die for a flow rate (Qm) of 5 kg/h.

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 Part I

1. Examples of products made by an extrusion process:

⚫ Geometrical characteristics: thin and long articles with regular shapes.

⚫ Does the fact that articles made by extrusion are long mean an extrusion process
is a continuous one? Could it be a batch or a cyclic process?
Answer: Yes, it has to be a continuous process and can’t be a batch or a cyclic
one.
2. How does a screw extruder work to manufacture such products? What are the
basic functions a screw extruder ought to ensure to make them?
To make such products, polymers have to be molten so that they can be pushed to go
through a die which shapes the polymers into desired forms. So a screw extruder
should at least ensure the transport of polymers often in the form of solid pellets
(solids conveying), their melting (melting/plastication) and their flow through a die
(pressurization and forming). Once the polymer melt comes out of the die, it may be
further shaped and is finally solidified by cooling.

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 Part II
Weight

Piston

Polymer
melt

Die

Extrudate

(1) It is found that the amount of the polymer melt coming out of the die for a time
interval of 10 min (denoted as m2) is 2.5 g. Please calculate the average velocity
of the polymer melt, uavg, the pressure drop in the die (from the entrance to the
exit), ∆P, and the viscosity of the polymer melt, µ.

(a) The average velocity uavg can be calculated as follows:

Qv
u avg = (1)
S die

Where Qv is the volumetric flow rate of the polymer melt and Sdie is the cross section
of the die.

Qv = Qm  = (m 2  ) t (2)
where m2 = 2.5 g = 2.5 x 10-3 kg, ρ = 0.9 g/cm3 = 900 kg/m3, t = 10 min = 600 s.

Qm = 4.17 kg/s = 1.5 x 10-2 kg/h

Qv = 4.63 x 10-9 m3/s.
ddie = 2.095 mm = 2.095 x 10-3 m.


S die = 2
d die = 3.445  10− 6 m 2 (2’)
4
Sdie = 3.445 x 10-6 m2.
uavg = 1.34 x 10-3 m/s = 8.06 cm/min.
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Please ask students if the order of magnitude of the velocity is close to what they
observed when they did the MFI (melt flow index) experiment. The MFI is the
amount of the polymer melt that has come out of the die exit for 10 min.
The answer should be yes. During the MFI experiment, students took samples at an
interval of 60 seconds. The length of the samples was of the order of a few
centimeters.

(b) The pressure drop between the die entrance and exit, ∆P.
Denote the pressure at the entrance of the die as P2 and that at the exit as P0 (the
atmospheric pressure).
(m 1 + m reservoir)g
P 2 = Pa + (3)
S reservoir
Where mreservoir is the mass of the polymer melt in the reservoir and S reservoir is the
cross section of the reservoir.
In practice, mreservoir << m1. Eq. 1 becomes:
m 1g
P 2  Pa + (4)
S reservoir
Where m1 = 2.16 kg, g = 9.81 m/s2.
 
Sreservoir = 2
d reservoir =  (20  10− 3 m )2 = 3.14  10 − 4 m 2 (5)
4 4

P2 = P0 + 6.75x104 Pa.
The pressure drop in the die between the entrance and the exit:
∆P = P2 – P0 = 6.75x104 Pa.

(c) The viscosity of the polymer melt, µ.

Suppose that the equation of Poiseuille hold (isothermal and laminar flow of a
Newtonian fluid):
 4
ddie P (6)
Q v = 16
8Ldie
ddie
4
P
 = = 861Pa.s (7)
128Qv Ldie

µ = 861 Pa.s

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(2) Please calculate the average velocity of the polymer melt, the pressure drop in
the die for a flow rate (Qm) of 5 kg/h and the mass (m1) which should be applied
to the piston to generate this flow rate.

Please point out that this flow rate associated with the geometry is typically what
we may encounter in an industrial process.

(a) The average velocity uavg can be calculated as follows:

Qv Q  Qm 5kg 3600s
uavg = = m = = (8)
S die Sdie S die   3.445 x 10- 6 m 2  900 kg m 3

Qv = Qm/ρ = 5kg/3600s/(900kg/m3) = 1.543 x 10-6 m3/s.

uavg = 0.448 m/s = 26.9 m/min = 2.69 x 103 cm/min.

The average velocity is two to three orders of magnitude higher than that for the MFI
measurement.

(b) The pressure drop between the die entrance and exit, ∆P.

Suppose that the equation of Poiseuille still hold:

 4
ddie P (6)
Q v = 16
8Ldie
128Qv Ldie 128  1.543  10-6  861  8  10-3
P = =
( )
(9)
ddie
4
3.14  2.095  10- 3
4

∆P = 2.25 x 107 Pa = 225 bar

Please ask students to comment on this value to see if it is reasonable or practical

or not. In any case, it is very high and is expected to be significantly lower in
practice, suggesting that the equation of Poiseuille may not hold anymore.

(c) The mass (m1) which should be applied to generate the flow rate of 5kg/h
through a die of 2.095 mm in diameter and 8.00 mm long.

m1 = ∆P x Sreservoir = 2.25 x 107 Pa x 3.14 x 10-4 m2 = 7.07 x 103 kg = 7.07 tons!!!!

Remarks:
In practice, to generate a flow rate of 5kg/h through a die of 2.095 mm in diameter
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and 8 mm long, the pressure needed would be likely one order of magnitude lower
than what is calculated above (225 bar). The same is true for the mass. In other
words, the equation of Poiseuille overestimates the pressure and consequently the
mass.

Why?

This can be explained using equation (9). The viscosity is overestimated. This is
because when the flow rate is high, the polymer melt is highly sheared
unidirectionally and polymer chains are highly oriented. As a result, polymer chains
are less entangled and the real viscosity is significantly reduced. This is why polymer
melts are shear thinning (rhéofluidifiant en français). The more severely they are
subjected to shear, the “thinner” (less viscous) they become.

On the conditions of the MFI, the flow rate is very small, polymer chains are not
oriented and the viscosity of the polymer melt is high.

In other words, under the conditions of 5 kg/h the viscosity should be much lower
than that under the conditions of 1.5 x 10-2 kg/h for the MFI measurement.

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