Spiral shearing flow

The analysis of mould filling requires rheological and thermal data for the plastic, and the mould dimensions. Polymer manufacturers usually provide shear flow curves at a range of temperatures these can be approximated by a power law relationship over a limited range of shear strain rates. In the days before computer analysis, flow lengths of short shots were determined in spiral test cavities, as a function of the injection pressure. However, the geometry of this constant cross section mould differs so much from most other moulds that the flow lengths in the two types of mould do not correlate well. 

Contrary to RPBRs, in SDRs, intensified heat transfer presents the most important advantage. Liquid reactant(s) are fed on the surface of a fast rotating disk near its center and flow outward. Temperature control takes place via a cooling medium fed under the reaction surface. The rotating surface of the disc enables to generate a highly sheared liquid film. The film fiow over the surface is intrinsically unstable and an array of spiral ripples is formed. This provides an additional improvement in the mass and heat transfer performance of the device. 

The shear rate and the stress the polymer experiences over the mixing clearance for spiral dam mixers are approximated hy Eqs. 8.14 and 8.15. For the shear rate calculation, the contribution due to pressure flow is relatively small compared to the component due to rotation and thus It was neglected. 

Quantitative Analysis of Spiral Flow (Combined Shear) and... 

A publication by B. Colleman, H. Markwitz and W. Noll27 describes in detail the theory of viscosimetric flows which was further used by a number of investigators (see, for example, 23,24,28-29) to analyze axial flow in a clearance between motionless and rotating cylinders. The authors of 27,30) have demonstrated theoretically that the spiral flow can be considered as a mutual overlapping (superimposing) of two strains occurring in a simple shear (see Sect. 1.2). 

The theory of viscosimetric flows, as mentioned above, permits the consideration of a spiral flow (Fig. 1) as a superimposition of two simple-shear strains. This approach... 

In recent years attempts have been made to improve the gas-liquid mass transfer by changing the design of the mechanically agitated vessel. Mann et al. (1989) evaluated the use of horizontal baffles mounted near the gas-liquid surface. Horizontal baffles prevent vortex formation, generate less shear than standard baffles, increase gas holdup, and improve gas-liquid mass transfer. The latter two results are due to the rotational flow below the baffles, which causes gas bubbles to move upward in a spiral trajectory and induces surface aeration. For a 12-inch i.d. and 18-inch-tall stirred vessel, they showed kLat to be improved by a factor of 1.6 to 2.3 with 30 to 50% lower agitation power compared to the standard vessel. 

Fig. 1. Typical flow curve of commercial LPE. There are five characteristic flow regimes (i) Newtonian (ii) shear thinning (iii) sharkskin (iv) flow discontinuity or stick-slip transition in controlled stress, and oscillating flow in controlled rate (v) slip flow. There are three leading types of extrudate distortion (a) sharkskin like, (b) alternating bamboo like in the shaded region, and (c) spiral like on the slip branch. Industrial extrusion of polyethylenes is most concerned with flow instabilities occurring in regimes (iii) to (v) where the three kinds of extrudate distortion must be dealt with. The unit shows the approximate levels of stress where the sharkskin and flow discontinuity occur respectively. There is appreciable molecular weight and temperature dependence of the critical stress for the discontinuity. Other highly entangled melts such as 1,4 polybutadienes also exhibit most of the features illustrated herein...

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