NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF NONISOTHERMAL FLOW OF POLYMER MELT IN A SINGLE-SCREW EXTRUDER: A VALIDATION STUDY

A recently developed approach to simulate the nonisothermal polymer melt flow in a single-screw extruder is validated against experimental data taken from the literature. Comparisons are made with eight sets of experimental results, and for each case several numerical runs are performed to provide some insight into the sensitivity of simulation outcomes to input material parameters (i.e., viscosity, density, thermal conductivity, and specific heat). In general, predictions for the pressure distribution along the extruder and for the mean melt temperature at the exit of the extruder compare favorably with pertinent experimental results. On the other hand, calculated estimates for the power consumption of an extruder are systematically lower than corresponding measured values.