Simulation of the Mechanism of Melting in a Modular Co-rotating Twin Screw Extruder: Effect of Barrel Temperature Screw Speed and Feed Rate
James White, Hochul Jung
Institute of Polymer Engineering, University of Akron, Akron
USA

Keywords: Melting, mechanism, extruder

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We observed melting mechanisms at the point of initiation and propagation under systematic experimental conditions. These experiments led us to discover special melting mechanisms at specific conditions.
We observed at low screw speed the location of melting initiation is moved from the screw surface, intermediate positions, to the barrel surface with increased barrel temperature. Also at low screw speed the melting propagation has the same patterns with initiation mechanisms. But at high screw speed the melting propagation mechanism doesn’t depend on the barrel temperature and it has only one mechanism, bed instability.
The observations are described as mechanisms. These mechanisms are represented and interpreted in terms of a series of mathematical models which represent phenomena variously at the screw at the barrel and in the bulk of the materials.