Testing the PTT Rheological Model for Extrusion of Virgin and Composite Materials in View of Enhanced Conductivity and Mechanical Recycling Potential

Abstract

One of the challenges for the manufacturing processes of polymeric parts is the dedicated control of composite melt flow. In the present work, the predictive capability of the Phan-Thien-Tanner (PTT) viscoelastic model is evaluated in relation to the extrudate swell from slit dies at 200 °C, considering polypropylene and graphite filler, and applying ANSYS Polyflow software. It is shown that for sufficiently low filler amounts (below 10%; volumetric) the PTT accurately reflects the viscoelastic interactions, but at higher filler amounts too large swellings are predicted. One can although obtain insights on the swelling in the height direction and consider a broader range of swelling areas compared to virgin materials. Guidelines are also provided for future experiments and model development, including the omission of the no-slip process boundary condition.