Transient viscoelastic heating characteristics of polyethene under high frequency hammering during ultrasonic plasticizing

Abstract

As a polymer molding technology developed in recent years, ultrasonic plasticizing micro-injection molding has great advantages in the manufacture of micro–nano parts by virtue of low energy consumption, less material waste and reduced filling resistance. However, the process and mechanism of transient viscoelastic heating for polymers under ultrasonic high-frequency hammering are unclear. The innovation of this research is that a combination of experiment and MD (molecular dynamics) simulation was adopted to study the transient viscoelastic thermal effect and microscopic behavior of polymers with different process parameters. To be more specific, a simplified heat generation model was first established and high-speed infrared thermal imaging equipment was applied to collect temperature data. Then, a single factor experiment was conducted to investigate the heat generation of a polymer rod with various process parameters (plasticizing pressure, ultrasonic amplitude and ultrasonic frequency). Finally, the thermal behavior during the experiment was supplemented and explained by MD simulation. The results showed that changes in ultrasonic process parameters produce different forms of heat generation, and there are three forms of heat generation, which are dominant heat generation at the ultrasonic sonotrode head end, dominant heat generation at the plunger end, and simultaneous heat generation at the ultrasonic sonotrode head end and the plunger end.