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Elaboration of polypropylene/carbon nanotubes by twin-screw mixer and identification of rheological behavior

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the numerical simulation of the mixing stage of injection molding process, for polypropylene/multi-walled carbon nanotube (PP/MWCNT) nanocomposites. First, a twin-screw mixer had been employed for preparing polypropylene nanocomposites loaded at 2, 5, and 10 wt% of MWCNT. Then, a characterization of rheological behavior for polypropylene as well as polypropylene/multi-walled carbon nanotube mixtures, at three temperatures (180, 200, and 220 °C,) has been carried out using capillary rheometer, in order to build a consistent flow model. The second part of the paper concerns the design of a transparent front wall for the twin-screw mixer in order to measure the temperature field for the PP in the twin-screw mixer cavity using infrared camera with high-quality thermal imaging. The final part is mainly devoted to the modeling of the polymer-filler flow during the mixing stage using the finite element method. Both PP and MWCNT have been mixed by using a twin-screw mixer. A proper agreement between numerical simulation and experimental results concerning mixing torque and mixing index as well as temperature fields has been obtained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Mechanic Laboratory, FEMTO-ST Institute, 24 Chemin de l’épitaphe, 25000, Besançon, France

    H. Djoudi, J. C. Gelin & T. Barriere

Authors
  1. H. Djoudi
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  2. J. C. Gelin
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  3. T. Barriere
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Correspondence to T. Barriere.

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Djoudi, H., Gelin, J.C. & Barriere, T. Elaboration of polypropylene/carbon nanotubes by twin-screw mixer and identification of rheological behavior. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 83, 1659–1670 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-015-7665-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-015-7665-2

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