Complements of Materials Processing and Engineering 2011-2012

Programme (10 weeks) 1. Polymer mixing and compounding

1.1 Mixing concepts 1.2 Compounding techniques 1.3 Twin screw extruders 1.4 Polymer blending and modification 1.5 Rheological behaviour of liquid-liquid systems

Weeks 1 to 3
Week 1 (Dec 5) - J Covas Week 1 (Dec 5) - J Covas Week 1 (Dec 5) - J Covas Week 2 (Dec 12) - C Bailly Week 3 (Jan 2) - C Bailly TEST 1 (Week 4, Jan 9)

2. Co-extrusion 2.1 Introduction & Technological aspects 2.2 Rheological effects 3. Processing of composites (thermoset matrix)

Weeks 5 & 6
Week 5 (Jan 16) - J Covas Weeks 5 & 6 (Jan 16 & 23) - J Maia Weeks 7 & 8 (Jan 30, Feb, 6) C Bailly TEST 2 (Week 9, Feb 13)

4. Process monitoring 3.1 General principles 3.2 On-line devices

Week 10 Week 10 (Feb 27) - J Covas, J Maia Week 10 (Feb 27) J Covas, J Maia

Assignment
- one topic to be developed by each student, related to one of the chapters of this ATM; - the assignment should take the form of a paper, a report, a powerpoint presentation, videos, as felt appropriate; - the preliminary discussion of the work methodology, scope and contents is encouraged and should be done by e-mail with the relevant lecturer; - the work must be submitted to the relevant lecturer (plus a copy to Jos Covas) by the end of week 9 (deadline: 6th February 2012); - all reports will be uploaded and made available to the remaining students.

Assessment:
- The general guides established for all the ATMs will be applied here. - The final mark is obtained from: Final mark = 0.33 *test 1 + 0.33* test 2 + 0.34* assignment

Student
Jamal Umer Febin Cyriac
A3 (J Covas)

Getachew Assegehegn

Henok Mesfin

Shriya Reddy Paida

Alejandro Moreno

Tauqeer Iqbal

Nicola Donato

Flix Cock

Chapter 1
A4 (J Covas) A5(J Maia)

A1 (C Bailly)

A2 (C Bailly)

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

A6 (C Bailly)

A7 (C Bailly)

Chapter 4

A8 (J Covas)

A9(J Maia)

Assignment
A1

TOPIC
Viscoelasticity and rheology of binary polymer blends : Depending on their single phase or biphasic morphology, the rheology of polymer blends looks very different. Highlight and explain the differences, in particular the mixing law for immiscible blends and the rheological signature of dispersed morphology in the linear viscoelasticity regime Viscoelasticity and rheology of polymer nanocomposites: Depending on the nature, shape and interactions of the dispersed nanofillers, the rheology of polymer nanocomposites looks very different. Explain the concept and origin of rheological percolation and analyze the various influences on the percolation threshold. Mixing in twin screw extruders: Co-rotating twin screw extruders are used in many compounding and reactive extrusion operations because of their excellent dispersive and distributive mixing characteristics. Summarize the efforts for modeling mixing in this type of equipment and identify the role of the rheological properties in the process. Co-extrusion technology: Consider a modern die for the manufacture of multi-layer blown film. Discuss current applications of multilayer blownfilm, describe the design of the flow channels, balance advantages and limitations of the technology. Extrusion-based micro and nano-layering: Consider the existing extrusion-based techniques for the continuous micro and nano-layering of polymers and explain the working principle, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of each geometrical configuration. Thermoset thermoplastic blends are more and more used to improve the properties of epoxy resins used for high end structural composites. Explain morphology development of these systems during processing/curing and analyze what properties are affected (in good or bad direction) and why. Resin transfer molding: RTM is an important processing method for high end composites. Explain the key aspects of the technology, including limitations and issues. Show examples and industrial significance. What are the new trends? What are the alternatives?

A2

A3

A4

A5

A6

A7

A8

Rheological on-line monitoring in extrusion and compounding: identify the main types of probes currently used (or under development) for online monitoring of the rheological characteristics, present their advantages/potentialities, explain their working principle and balance advantages and limitations. Spectroscopy probes for on-line monitoring in extrusion and compounding: Identify the main types of spectroscopy probes currently used (or under development) for on-line monitoring, present their advantages/potentialities, explain their working principle and balance advantages and limitations.

A9