Characterization of rheological behaviors of polypropylene / carbone nanotubes composites and modeling their flow in a twin screw mixer

F. Thiébaud (1) , J.C. Gelin (2)

1 HCTLab - Human Computer Technology Laboratory
2 FEMTO-ST - Franche-Comté Électronique Mécanique, Thermique et Optique - Sciences et Technologies (UMR 6174)

This paper focuses on the numerical simulation of the polypropylene / multi-walled carbon nanotubes (PP/MWCNT) flow into a twin screw mixer, during the mixing phase. The PP/MWCNT behavior obeys an innovating Carreau law enriched temperature built on the rheological properties carried out previously. The polypropylene was mixed with different MWCNTs contents (1, 2, 4 and 8 wt% of MWCNT content) and the rheological tests were performed at shear rate ranges from 10 to 210 s at four temperatures (180, 200, 220 and 240 °C). Thus the effects of the temperature and the MWCNTs content on the rheological properties of the PP/MWCNT composites were investigated. The finite element (FEM) analysis of the PP/MWCNT flow allows to compute the velocity, the shear rate and the temperature during the mixing phase period. A good agreement between the experimental measured torque on the screw and the calculated one is shown. Therefore, one can consider that the physical flow is generally well described, awaiting a numerical simulation of the PP/MWCNT mixing phase.

Mots clés: A. Carbon nanotubes; A. Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs); D. Rheological behavior; C. Modelling mixing; D. Finite element analysis (FEA)

F. Thiébaud, J.C. Gelin. Characterization of rheological behaviors of polypropylene / carbone nanotubes composites and modeling their flow in a twin screw mixer. Composites Science and Technology, 2010, 70 (4), pp.647. ⟨10.1016/j.compscitech.2009.12.020⟩. ⟨hal-00615123⟩