Numerical simulation of the gas-assisted forming of double-lumen plastic catheter

Abstract

The numerical simulations of the gas-assisted extrusion (GAE) of double-lumen plastic catheter (DLPC) were performed by using the software Polyflow. The extruded profiles, swell ratios, flow velocities, pressures, stresses of melt based on gas-assisted method were gotten and compared with those of traditional method. Results show that the gas-assisted method can well eliminate the extrusion swell and deformation phenomena of DLPC. The reasons are that, by means of gas-assisted method, the radial velocity of melt is zero, axial velocity distributions are uniform, pressure and stresses are greatly less than the traditional extrusion. Therefore, the gas-assisted method has great value used in the extrusion forming of DLPC.