3D Numerical Simulation of Reactive Extrusion Processes for Preparing PP/TiO2 Nanocomposites in a Corotating Twin Screw Extruder

Abstract

To better understand the relationship between flow, mixing and reactions in the process of preparing PP/TiO2, a 3D numerical simulation in a co-rotating twin screw extruder (TSE) was firstly employed using commercial CFD code, ANSYS Polyflow. The effects of rotating speed of screws, stagger angle of knead blocks, inlet flow rate and initial temperature of barrel on the mixing and reaction process in the TSE were investigated. The results reveal that the studied operational and geometric parameters, which determine mixing efficiency, residence time distribution, and temperature of the flows in the TSE, affect the local species concentration, reaction time and reaction rate, and hence have great influences on the conversion rate. The results show that increasing the rotating speed and inlet flow rate can decrease the time for sufficient mixing, which is not conducive to intensive reaction, and increasing the stagger angle has the opposite effect. Moreover, the conversion rate greatly affected by the initial temperature of barrel.