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Suspensions of monodisperse spheres in polymer melts: particle size effects in extensional flow

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Abstract.

Suspensions in polymeric, viscoelastic liquids have been studied in uniaxial extensional flow. The fibre wind-up technique has been used for this purpose. The effects of particle size and particle volume fraction have been investigated, using monodisperse, spherical particles. The results have been compared with shear flow data on the same materials. The values of the relative extensional viscosities at low stretching rates are in agreement with the relative shear viscosities and relative moduli. This indicates that hydrodynamic forces are stronger than the particle interaction forces. At larger strain rates strain hardening occurs; it is suppressed when particles are added. Small aggregating particles reduce the strain hardening more strongly than larger particles; strain hardening can even be totally eliminated. When further increasing the stretching rate, hydrodynamic effects dominate again and the effect of particle size effect on strain hardening disappears.

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Acknowledgements.

Partial support from the FWO Vlaanderen through a research grant is gratefully acknowledged. One of us (JFLM) thanks the European Commission for a fellowship through the HUSC RTN network (IHP-RTN-99–1).

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  1. Jean-François Le Meins

    Present address: : Centre de Recherche sur les Biopolymères Artificiels CRBA UMR 5473 Faculté de Pharmacie, 15 Avenue Ch. Flahault, B.P. 14 491 34093 Monpellier Cedex 5, France,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, K.U. Leuven, de Croylaan 46, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

    Jean-François Le Meins, Paula Moldenaers & Jan Mewis

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  1. Jean-François Le Meins
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  2. Paula Moldenaers
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  3. Jan Mewis
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Correspondence to Jan Mewis.

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Le Meins, JF., Moldenaers, P. & Mewis, J. Suspensions of monodisperse spheres in polymer melts: particle size effects in extensional flow. Rheol Acta 42, 184–190 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00397-002-0270-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00397-002-0270-y

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