Microstructure Control During Laminar Mixing of Inhomogeneous Fluids

DMI-9813020塔克这项研究考察了非均质液-液体系的混合，例如聚合物混合物。混合决定了这些材料的精细形态和它们的固态特性。该项目正在开发分析和数值工具来分析非均质流体的层流混合，并针对特性良好的流体进行测试。流体中任一点的微观结构由面积张量表示，该张量提供有关微观结构的大小、形状和取向的信息。面积张量随时间的变化响应于流体的局部变形和旋转，遵循的理论被结合到有限元程序中，该程序同时求解压力、速度和面积张量的分量。使用这种方法，工程师将能够分析双螺杆挤出机和类似设备的混合性能，这些设备会产生复杂的流场。这一能力将改进聚合物混合设备的设计和操作，实现实验室工艺的可靠放大，并提高聚合物混合物和相关产品的质量和一致性。

DMI-9813020 Tucker This research examines mixing of inhomogeneous liquid-liquid systems, such as polymer blends. Mixing determines the fine-scale morphology of these materials, and their solid-state properties. This project is developing analytical and numerical tools to analyze laminar mixing of inhomogeneous fluids, and testing these against experiments on well-characterized fluids. The microstructure at any point in the fluid is represented by the area tensor, which provides information about the size, shape, and orientation of the microstructure. The area tensor changes over time in response to the local deformation and rotation of the fluid, following a theory is incorporated into a finite element code, which solves simultaneously for pressure, velocity, and the components of the area tensor. Using this approach, engineers will be able to analyze the mixing performance of twin screw extruders and similar devices, which generate complex flow fields. This capability will improve the design and operation of polymer mixing equipment, enable reliable scale-up of the laboratory processes, and improve the quality and consistency of polymer blends and related products.