Design and Ductile Behavior of Torsion Configurations in Material Extrusion to Enhance Plasticizing and Melting.

Ranran Jian,Lupeng Wu,Weimin Yang,Mohini Sain,Chuanwei Zhang

doi:10.3390/polym13183181

Abstract

In the present work, the ductile formation mechanism of a newly proposed torsion configuration has been investigated. One of the unique attributes of this paper is the first-time disclosure of the design and fabrication of a novel prototype screw with torsional flow character validating the orthogonal test model experimentally. The torsional spiral flow patterns that occurred in the torsion channel cause a ductile deformation of polymer in the form of a spiral, which in turn enhances the radial convection, achieving an effective mass transfer of material from the top region to the bottom region and vice versa. Furthermore, the characteristic parameters of torsion configuration have a significant influence on the plasticizing and melting capability of polymer. By range analysis and weight matrix analysis, the best factor and level combination was obtained. Results indicated that the aspect ratio of the torsion channel is almost equal to 1, and the plasticizing and melting capability of polymer is optimal. This novel design innovation offers a paradigm shift in the energy-efficient plasticization of polymer compounds.

Highlights

The issues of energy consumption and carbon emissions have become the focus of international concern, and there is an increasing need for a low-carbon and highefficiency technology upgrade, especially in the chemical industry [1,2,3]
From the flow patterns in the axial direction, as shown in Figure 6a, a torsion-spiral flow occurred in the torsion channel at the position of torsion configurations, inducing a ductile deformation of polymer in the form of a spiral, and thereby, the radial convections were enhanced
The main factors affecting the plasticizing and melting capability of torsion configurations and the optimal group of factors and levels were obtained by range analysis, together with the weight matrix analysis of the orthogonal test

Summary

Introduction

The issues of energy consumption and carbon emissions have become the focus of international concern, and there is an increasing need for a low-carbon and highefficiency technology upgrade, especially in the chemical industry [1,2,3]. An extruder is a typical piece of chemical equipment, and its plasticizing and melting performance is an important part of polymer extrusion process control, divided into plasticizing efficiency and plasticizing uniformity, which is accompanied by high energy consumption. The efficiency of the melting process directly determines the entire process, and the melting process largely determines the stability and quality of the subsequent process. Due to the phase transition and solid–liquid two-phase transport, the flow and heat transfer process is quite complex. It is very important to study the fluid ductile flow behavior to enhance melting and heat transfer in the melting zone for lowcarbon, energy-saving and improving the quality of products. Screw structure optimization is an important research and development direction

Methods

Results

Conclusion