Abstract
Monte Carlo method is used to capture the evolution of spherulites and shish-kebabs and to predict the crystallization kinetics in isothermal polymer crystallization. Effects of nucleation density and growth rate of spherulites, nucleation density, and length growth rate of shish-kebabs, respectively, on crystallization are investigated. Results show that nucleation densities of both spherulites and shish-kebabs strongly affect crystallization rate as well as morphology. An increase in nucleation density of either spherulites or shish-kebabs leads to a quicker crystallization rate and a smaller average spherulite size. It is also shown that nucleation density of shish-kebabs has a stronger impact on crystallization rate. Growth rate of spherulites and length growth rate of shish-kebabs also have significant effect on crystallization rate and morphology. An increase in growth rate of spherulites or length growth rate of shish-kebabs also speeds up the crystallization rate; additionally, a decrease in growth rate of spherulites or an increase in length growth rate of shish-kebabs results in a more highly anisotropic shish-kebab structure and a smaller average size of spherulites. Results also show that the effect of growth rate of spherulites is more important than the effect of length growth rate of shish-kebabs on crystallization.
Highlights
This study is motivated by an interest in the crystallization of semicrystalline polymers during the manufactural processing
The objective of this paper is to present a Monte Carlo simulation to capture the evolution of crystalline structure, to predict the final structure spatial distribution, and to calculate the crystallization rate in isothermal polymer crystallization
The crystallization kinetics and morphology are studied by Monte Carlo method in a small spatial region, [0, 1] mm × [0, 1] mm × [0, 1] mm in particular
Summary
This study is motivated by an interest in the crystallization of semicrystalline polymers during the manufactural processing. These materials are injected as viscous/viscoelastic melt into a mold that gives it the desired final shape. The resulting product is cooled to make a solid composite with a typical crystalline structure that is a key feature of the finished product since it affects mechanics, thermomechanics of the materials [1]. It is of great importance to predict the crystal morphology and crystallinity formed during the manufactural processing
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