Study of mixing and chemical reaction in RIM

Abstract

A 2D hydrodynamic model of the mixing chamber of a reaction injection molding (RIM) machine, previously established for the flow field simulation with computational fluid dynamics is now extended for the study of mixing and chemical reaction. Mass transfer is studied from simulations of tracer's dynamics, which are used for direct imaging of the mixing mechanisms and for micromixing efficiency quantification. The effect on the mass transfer simulations of the most important numeric and operational parameters, such as the grid density, the Schmidt number and the Reynolds number, is assessed. Tracer simulations are also used to quantify the macromixing with the computation of the residence time distribution. Dynamic simulation of chemical reaction in RIM is also presented, and the impact of micromixing mechanisms is studied.