Quantitative Characterization of Viscoelastic Properties and their Relationship During Extrusion Flow of Polymer Melts

Abstract

ABSTRACT The viscoelastic behavior, such as end pressure losses, die swell, and normal stress difference, is a very important rheological phenomenon of viscoelastic fluids in channel flow. Therefore, understanding the elastic behavior and the mechanisms is quite necessary and meaningful for polymer rheology. Extrusion is a usual processing way in polymer industry. The viscoelastic behavior and the factors affecting it during die extrusion flow of polymeric melts are discussed, and the relationships among these viscoelastic properties, such as entry pressure drop (ΔP en), exit pressure drop (ΔP ex), die-swell ratio (B), and the first normal stress difference (N 1), are analyzed in this article. The results showed that there are some simple and available expressions for describing the relationships among these viscoelastic property parameters and the values of these parameters can be evaluated. Furthermore, the recent progresses in the quantitative expressions for prediction of these viscoelastic property parameters and their correlations are briefly reviewed.