Emil Wagner

An optimized extrusion process is desired for both an environmentally friendly and economically sustainable recycling process. The aim of this study is to simulate the melt conveying zone of a single-screw extruder when using contaminated polymers instead of commonly used pure materials, to optimize a mechanical recycling process, and to reduce the number of measurements needed for rheological input data by using mixing rules. Polypropylene (PP) is blended with a polyamide 12 (PA 12) grade and another PP grade to introduce polymer impurities into the material. The blends are subjected to extrusion experiments in a lab-scale single-screw extruder with pressure and temperature sensors along the barrel. An isothermal analytical simulation model is proposed using representative shear rate values and rheological mixing rules to calculate the pressure distribution along the screw channel throughout the melt conveying zone. The rheological input data for the simulation is taken from high-pressure capillary rheometric measurements, but also substituted with values derived from mixing rules. The results show that the application of the shear viscosity through mixing models yields simulated pressure values similar to those measured in the experiments. With the introduction of representative viscosity into the model, relative deviations of around 5% at certain screw speeds can be achieved.

The scope of this work is the development of a method to estimate the temperature and shear rate-dependent viscosity of mixtures composed of two polymers. The viscosity curve of polymer mixtures is crucial for the modeling and optimization of extrusion-based recycling, which is the most efficient way to recycle polymeric materials. The modeling and simulation of screw extruders requires detailed knowledge of the properties of the processed material, such as the thermodynamic properties, the density, and the rheological behavior. These properties are widely known for pure materials; however, the incorporation of impurities, like other polymers in recycled materials, alters the properties. In this work, miscible, immiscible, and compatibilized immiscible polymer mixtures are considered. A new method based on shear stress is proposed and compared to the shear rate-based method. Several mixing rules are evaluated for their accuracy in predicting mixture viscosity. The developed methods allow the prediction of the viscosity of a compatibilized immiscible mixture with deviations below 5% and that of miscible polymer mixtures with deviations below 3.5%.