ABSTRACT
In the design of coat hanger extrusion dies, the main objective is to provide a uniform flow rate at the die exit. Previously, a multi-rheology isothermal method model for coat hanger extrusion dies was developed to reach this objective. Polymer melts in extrusion dies commonly experience high shear rates. Viscous dissipation rooted by high shear rate may lead to significant temperature differences across the die. Due to temperature-dependency of viscosity, temperature differences may lead to nonuniform flow rates, which may significantly affect the flow rate at the die exit. As a result, a new design method is proposed to take into account the effects of temperature and viscous dissipation in the design of coat hanger dies. Although more non-Newtonian fluid rheology models can be adapted in the proposed study, as demonstration, temperature-dependent power-law and Carreau-Yasuda models are adapted in this study. Performances are compared with our isothermal method published earlier. In addition, the novel nonisothermal method is comprehensively examined where the effect of viscous dissipation is studied through Brinkman number of extrusion die. It is demonstrated that, for a low Brinkman number, both isothermal and nonisothermal design give similar flow uniformity level. However, for higher Brinkman numbers, the proposed nonisothermal method produces a design with more desirable velocity uniformity level along with a maximum improvement of 5.24% over the isothermal method. In addition, dependency of flow field on temperature, due to temperature-dependent viscosity, is studied, and it is demonstrated that fully-developed velocity profile changes as temperature increases along the flow channel. Moreover, the effect of the temperature sensitivity parameter in temperature-dependent non-Newtonian models is considered. It is demonstrated that the temperature boundary condition with the Biot number of 1.0 gives adequate results for lower values of the temperature sensitivity parameter.
ABSTRACT
Numerical flow simulations play an important role in polymer processing. One of the essential prerequisites for accurate and precise flow simulations is to obtain accurate materials functions. In the framework of the generalized Newtonian fluid model, one needs to obtain shear viscosity as a function of the rate-of-shear and temperature-as determined by rheometry-and then fitted to a mathematical model. Often, many subjectively perform the fitting without paying attention to the relative quality of the estimated parameters. This paper proposes a unique iterative algorithm for fitting the rate-of-shear and temperature-dependent viscosity model under the time-temperature superposition (TTS) principle. Proof-of-concept demonstrations are shown using the five-parameter Carreau-Yasuda model and experimental data from small-amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS) measurements. It is shown that the newly proposed iterative algorithm leads to a more accurate representation of the experimental data compared to the traditional approach. We compare their performance in studies of the steady isothermal flow of a Carreau-Yasuda model fluid in a straight, circular tube. The two sets of parameters, one from the traditional approach and the other from the newly proposed iterative approach, show considerable differences in flow simulation. The percentage difference between the two predictions can be as large as 10% or more. Furthermore, even in cases where prior knowledge of the TTS shifting factors is not available, the newly proposed iterative approach can still yield a good fit to the experimental data, resulting in both the shifting factors and parameters for the non-Newtonian fluid model.
ABSTRACT
In the polymer sheet processing industry, the primary objective when designing a coat-hanger die is to achieve a uniform velocity distribution at the exit of the extrusion die outlet. This velocity distribution depends on the internal flow channels of the die, rheological parameters and extrusion process conditions. As a result, coat-hanger dies are often designed for each polymer based on its individual rheological data and other conditions. A multi-rheology method based on a flow network model and the Winter-Fritz equation is proposed and implemented for the calculation, design and optimization of flat sheeting polymer extrusion dies. This method provides a fast and accurate algorithm to obtain die design geometries with constant wall-shear rates and optimal outlet velocity distributions. The geometric design when complemented and validated with fluid flow simulations could be applied for multi-rheological fluid models such as the power-law, Carreau-Yasuda and Cross. This method is applied to sheet dies with both circular- and rectangular-shaped manifolds for several rheological fluids. The designed geometrical parameters are obtained, and the associated fluid simulations are performed to demonstrate its favorable applicability without being limited to only the power-law rheology. The two such designed dies exhibit 32.9 and 21.5 percent improvement in flow uniformity compared to the previous methods for dies with circular and rectangular manifolds, respectively.
ABSTRACT
Aerated concrete (AC), such as cellular concrete, autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC), and non-autoclaved aerated concrete (NAAC), having excellent insulation properties, is commonly used in buildings located in cold regions, such as Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan, the second coldest capital city in the world, because it can contribute to a large energy saving. However, when the AC is directly exposed to the repeated freeze and thaw (F-T) cycles, its F-T resistance can be critical because of lower density and scaling resistance of the AC. Moreover, the evaluation of the F-T resistance of the AC based on the durability factor (DF) calculated by using the relative dynamic modulus of elasticity may overestimate the frost resistance of the AC due to the millions of evenly distributed air voids in spite of its weak scaling resistance. In the present study, the F-T resistance of NAAC mixtures with various binary or ternary combinations of ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) and micro-silica was assessed mainly using the ASTM C 1262/C1262M-16 Standard Test Method for Evaluating the Freeze-Thaw Durability of Dry-Cast Segmental Retaining Wall Units and Related Concrete Units. Critical parameters to affect the F-T resistance performance of the NAAC mixture such as compressive strength, density, water absorption, air-void ratio (VR), moisture uptake, durability factor (DF), weight loss (Wloss), the degree of saturation (Sd), and residual strength (Sres) were determined. Based on the determined parameter values, frost resistance number (FRN) has been developed to evaluate the F-T resistance of the NAAC mixture. Test results showed that all NAAC mixtures had good F-T resistance when they were evaluated with DF. Binary NAAC mixtures generally showed higher Sd and Wloss and lower DF and Sres than those of ternary NAAC mixtures. It was determined that the Sd was a key factor for the F-T resistance of NAAC mixtures. Finally, the developed FRN could be an appropriate tool to evaluate the F-T resistance of the NAAC mixture.
ABSTRACT
Wireless smart sensors (WSS) have been proposed as an effective means to reduce the high cost of wired structural health monitoring systems. However, many damage scenarios for civil infrastructure involve sudden events, such as strong earthquakes, which can result in damage or even failure in a matter of seconds. Wireless monitoring systems typically employ duty cycling to reduce power consumption; hence, they will miss such events if they are in power-saving sleep mode when the events occur. This paper develops a demand-based WSS to meet the requirements of sudden event monitoring with minimal power budget and low response latency, without sacrificing high-fidelity measurements or risking a loss of critical information. In the proposed WSS, a programmable event-based switch is implemented utilizing a low-power trigger accelerometer; the switch is integrated in a high-fidelity sensor platform. Particularly, the approach can rapidly turn on the WSS upon the occurrence of a sudden event and seamlessly transition from low-power acceleration measurement to high-fidelity data acquisition. The capabilities of the proposed WSS are validated through laboratory and field experiments. The results show that the proposed approach is able to capture the occurrence of sudden events and provide high-fidelity data for structural condition assessment in an efficient manner.
