Abstract
Nucleating agents play an important role as additives in the production of injection-moulded components from semi-crystalline thermoplastics. To date, however, no work has been published in the scientific literature, which simulates the influence of nucleating agents on the formation of the microstructure of semi-crystalline thermoplastics. This research gap is to be closed within the framework of the research.
The aim of previous researches at the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) was to predict the microstructure of injection-moulded components using an in-house developed model to describe the crystallisation of semi-crystalline thermoplastics, which was implemented into software, called “SphaeroSim”. Although, it was able to simulate only a homogeneous pure melt without any additive. Within this work, the SphaeroSim is further developed to consider the additives and to distinguish between alpha- and beta nucleating agents. To consider the nucleating agents, the possibility to set up predefined nuclei is added to the model. Finally, the growth rate of beta crystals is measured on the hot stage at different temperatures to realise the consideration of beta nucleating agents. Finally, the solidification process on the hot stage is simulated and compared to the experimental results.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Tordjeman, P., Robert, C., Marin, G., Gerard, P.: The effect of α, β crystalline structure on the mechanical properties of polypropylene. Eur. Phys. J. 4(4), 459–465 (2001)
Wypych, G.: Handbook of Nucleating Agents. ChemTec Publishing, Canada (2016)
Palza, H., Vera, J., Wilhelm, M., Zapata, P.: Spherulite growth rate in polypropylene/silica nanoparticle composites: effect of particle morphology and compatibilizer. Macromol. Mater. Eng. 296(8), 744–751 (2011)
Xu, T., Zhang, A., Zhao, Y., Han, Z., Xue, L.: Crystallization kinetics and morphology of biodegradable poly(lactic acid) with a hydrazide nucleating agent. Polym. Test. 45, 101–106 (2015)
Petchwattana, N., Covavisaruch, S., Sripanya, P.: Effect of nano-scaled styrene butadiene rubber based nucleating agent on the thermal, crystallization and physical properties of isotactic polypropylene. J. Alloys Compd. 582, 190–195 (2014)
Karger-Kocsis, J.: How does “phase transformation toughening” work in semicrystalline polymers? Polym. Eng. Sci. 36(2), 203–210 (1996)
Varley, R.J., Dell’Olio, M., Yuan, Q., Khor, S., Leong, K.H., Bateman, S.: Different β nucleants and the resultant microstructural, fracture, and tensile properties for filled and unfilled ISO polypropylene. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 128(1), 619–627 (2013)
Zhang, Y., Zhang, L., Liu, H., Du, H., Zhang, J., Wang, T., Zhang, X.: Novel approach to tune mechanics of β-nucleation agent nucleated polypropylene: role of oriented β spherulite. Polymer 54(21), 6026–6035 (2013)
Kersch, M., Schmidt, H.W., Altstädt, V.: Influence of different beta-nucleating agents on the morphology of isotactic polypropylene and their toughening effectiveness. Polymer 98, 320–326 (2016)
Michler, G.H., Balta-Calleja, F.J.: Nano- and Micromechanics of Polymers. Hanser, München (2012)
Laschet, G., Spekowius, M., Spina, R., Hopmann, C.: Multiscale simulation to predict microstructure dependent effective elastic properties of an injection molded polypropylene component. Mech. Mater. 105, 123–137 (2017)
Spina, R., Spekowius, R., Hopmann, C.: Multiphysics simulation of thermoplastic polymer crystallization. Mater. Des. 105, 455–469 (2016)
Wienke, S., Spekowius, M., Dammer, A., Mey, D.A., Hopmann, C., Müller, M.S.: Towards an accurate simulation of the crystallization process in injection molded plastic components by hybrid parallelization. Int. J. High Perform. Comput. Appl. 28(3), 356–367 (2013)
Spina, R., Spekowius, M., Hopmann, C.: Analysis of polymer crystallization with a multiscale modeling approach. Key Eng. Mater. 611, 928–936 (2014)
Lamberti, G.: A direct way to determine iPP density nucleation from DSC isothermal measurements. Polym. Bull. 52(6), 443–449 (2004)
Spekowius, M.: New Microscale Model for the Description of Crystallization of Semi-Crystalline Thermoplastics. Verlag Mainz, Aachen (2017)
Lotz, B.: α and β phases of isotactic polypropylene: a case of growth kinetics `phase reentrency’ in polymer crystallization. Polymer 39(19), 4561–4567 (1998)
Lovinger, A.J., Chua, J.O., Gryte, C.C.: Studies on the α and β forms of isotactic polypropylene by crystallization in a temperature gradient. J. Polym. Sci. Polym. Phys. Ed. 15(4), 641–656 (1977)
Zhang, B., Chen, J., Zhang, X., Shen, C.: Formation of β-cylindrites under supercooled extrusion of isotactic polypropylene at low shear stress. Polymer 52(9), 2075–2084 (2011)
Nakamura, K., Shimizu, S., Umemoto, S., Thierry, A., Lotz, B., Okui, N.: Temperature dependence of crystal growth rate for α and β forms of isotactic polypropylene. Polym. J. 40, 915 (2008)
Janeschitz-Kriegl, H.: Crystallization Modalities in Polymer Melt Processing. Springer, Wien (2010)
Ziabicki, A.: Generalized theory of nucleation kinetics. IV. Nucleation as diffusion in the space of cluster dimensions, positions, orientations, and internal structure. J. Chem. Phys. 85(5), 3042–3057 (1986)
Hoffman, J.D., Davis, G.T., Lauritzen, J.I.: The rate of crystallization of linear polymers with chain folding. In: Hannay, N.B. (ed.) Treatise on Solid State Chemistry. Springer, New York (1976)
Acknowledgment
This dedicated research has been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as a part of the project “Simulation of the development of the microstructure of injection-moulded semi-crystalline thermoplastics by means of a multi-scale approach under consideration of shear-induced crystal forms (alpha and beta)” (Project-ID: HO 4776/53-1). We would like to extend our thanks to the DFG.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature
About this paper
Cite this paper
Nokhostin, H., Hopmann, C. (2020). Simulation of Solidification of a Nucleated Isotactic Polypropylene in a Quiescent Condition. In: Hopmann, C., Dahlmann, R. (eds) Advances in Polymer Processing 2020. Springer Vieweg, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-60809-8_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-60809-8_25
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer Vieweg, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-60808-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-60809-8
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)