Three-Dimensional, Non-Isothermal Simulations of the Effect of Speed Ratio in Partially-Filled Rubber Mixing

Abstract

Abstract Three-dimensional, transient, non-isothermal calculations have been carried out using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software in a two-wing rotor-equipped chamber partially-filled (75% fill factor) with rubber, to analyze the mixing efficiency for three different rotor speed ratios of 1, 1.125 and 1.5. The moving mesh technique has been used to incorporate the motion of the rotors. The Eulerian based volume of fluid (VOF) method has been used to track the interface between the two fluids, which are rubber and air. To assign the highly viscous and non-Newtonian properties of rubber, the Carreau-Yasuda model along with an exact Arrhenius formulation that accounts for the shear and temperature dependent viscosity, has been used here. Governing equations including the continuity, momentum and energy equations have been solved to characterize the flow field and various mixing parameters. Eulerian-based fields such as velocity magnitude, viscous heat generation, and average temperature and viscosity are compared between cases with different speed ratios. Dispersive and distributive mixing behaviour are assessed through a Lagrangian approach that tracks the paths of a set of massless particles. Statistical quantities such as cumulative distribution of maximum shear stress, cluster distribution index, and axial and inter-chamber particle transfer rates are calculated and presented as well. Results showed that the speed ratio of 1.5 displayed the best dispersive and distributive mixing characteristics in comparison to the other cases.