Fluid mechanics of polymer melt filtration

顺序拉伸薄膜铸造用于制造聚合物薄膜，用于广泛的包装，成像，电子，光伏和其他工业应用。为了保持制造薄膜的完整性，同时最大限度地提高回收利用率，将聚合物熔体过滤掉所有杂质是至关重要的，但是过滤器通过收集污染物而充满，需要频繁且昂贵的更换，这就需要在生产过程中大量停机。该项目将开发新的计算工具来分析两种常用的过滤器设计，以便更好地了解过滤器随着时间的推移而退化，以及如何提高其性能，效率和寿命。除了预测这些加热的高粘性高压流体的复杂三维动力学外，该项目还需要开发过滤器性能随时间演变的模型，这可能需要一些小规模的实验室工作和/或工业中试线研究。

Sequential stretched film casting is employed in the manufacture of thin polymer films used for a wide range of packaging, imaging, electronic, photovoltaic and other industrial applications. To maintain the integrity of the manufactured film while maximising recycle content, it is critical that the polymer melt is filtered of all impurities, but filters fill up through collection of the contaminants and need frequent and costly replacement, necessitating significant downtime to the production process. This project will develop novel computational tools for the analysis of two commonly used filter designs in order to gain a better understanding of the degradation of the filters over time and how to enhance their performance, efficiency and longevity. In addition to predicting the complex three-dimensional dynamics of these heated highly viscous, high-pressure flows, the project will require the development of models for the evolution of the filter properties over time which may require some small-scale laboratory work and/or industrial pilot line studies.