Transient viscoelastic heating characteristics of polyethene under high frequency hammering during ultrasonic plasticizing.

As a polymer molding technology developed in recent years, ultrasonic plasticizing micro-injection molding has great advantages in the manufacture of micro-nano parts by virtue of low energy consumption, less material waste and reduced filling resistance. However, the process and mechanism of transient viscoelastic heating for polymers under ultrasonic high-frequency hammering are unclear. The innovation of this research is that a combination of experiment and MD (molecular dynamics) simulation was adopted to study the transient viscoelastic thermal effect and microscopic behavior of polymers with different process parameters. To be more specific, a simplified heat generation model was first established and high-speed infrared thermal imaging equipment was applied to collect temperature data. Then, a single factor experiment was conducted to investigate the heat generation of a polymer rod with various process parameters (plasticizing pressure, ultrasonic amplitude and ultrasonic frequency). Finally, the thermal behavior during the experiment was supplemented and explained by MD simulation. The results showed that changes in ultrasonic process parameters produce different forms of heat generation, and there are three forms of heat generation, which are dominant heat generation at the ultrasonic sonotrode head end, dominant heat generation at the plunger end, and simultaneous heat generation at the ultrasonic sonotrode head end and the plunger end.

Molecular Insights into the Wall Slip Behavior of Pseudoplastic Polymer Melt in Nanochannels during Micro Injection Molding.

Wall slip directly affects the molding quality of plastic parts by influencing the stability of the filling flow field during micro injection molding. The accurate modeling of wall slip in nanochannels has been a great challenge for pseudoplastic polymer melts. Here, an effective modeling method for polymer melt flow in nanochannels based on united-atom molecular dynamics simulations is presented. The effects of driving forces and wall-fluid interactions on the behavior of polyethylene melt under Poiseuille flow conditions were investigated by characterizing the slip velocity, dynamics information of the flow process, and spatial configuration parameters of molecular chains. The results indicated that the united-atom molecular dynamics model could better describe the pseudoplastic behavior in nanochannels than the commonly used finitely extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE) model. It was found that the slip velocity could be increased with increasing driving force and show completely opposite variation trends under different orders of magnitude of the wall-fluid interactions. The influence mechanism was interpreted by the density distribution and molecular chain structure parameters, including disentanglement and orientation, which also coincides with the change in the radius of gyration.

Polymer-Metal Interfacial Friction Characteristics under Ultrasonic Plasticizing Conditions: A United-Atom Molecular Dynamics Study.

Understanding the properties of polymer-metal interfacial friction is critical for accurate prototype design and process control in polymer-based advanced manufacturing. The transient polymer-metal interfacial friction characteristics are investigated using united-atom molecular dynamics in this study, which is under the boundary conditions of single sliding friction (SSF) and reciprocating sliding friction (RSF). It reflects the polymer-metal interaction under the conditions of initial compaction and ultrasonic vibration, so that the heat generation mechanism of ultrasonic plasticization microinjection molding (UPMIM) is explored. The contact mechanics, polymer segment rearrangement, and frictional energy transfer features of polymer-metal interface friction are investigated. The results reveal that, in both SSF and RSF modes, the sliding rate has a considerable impact on the dynamic response of the interfacial friction force, where the amplitude has a response time of about 0.6 ns to the friction. The high frequency movement of the polymer segment caused by dynamic interfacial friction may result in the formation of a new coupled interface. Frictional energy transfer is mainly characterized by dihedral and kinetic energy transitions in polymer chains. Our findings also show that the ultrasonic amplitude has a greater impact on polymer-metal interfacial friction heating than the frequency, as much as it does under ultrasonic plasticizing circumstances on the homogeneous polymer-polymer interface. Even if there are differences in thermophysical properties at the heterointerface, transient heating will still cause heat accumulation at the interface with a temperature difference of around 35 K.

Tuning Power Ultrasound for Enhanced Performance of Thermoplastic Micro-Injection Molding: Principles, Methods, and Performances.

With the wide application of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMSs), especially the rapid development of wearable flexible electronics technology, the efficient production of micro-parts with thermoplastic polymers will be the core technology of the harvesting market. However, it is significantly restrained by the limitations of the traditional micro-injection-molding (MIM) process, such as replication fidelity, material utilization, and energy consumption. Currently, the increasing investigation has been focused on the ultrasonic-assisted micro-injection molding (UAMIM) and ultrasonic plasticization micro-injection molding (UPMIM), which has the advantages of new plasticization principle, high replication fidelity, and cost-effectiveness. The aim of this review is to present the latest research activities on the action mechanism of power ultrasound in various polymer micro-molding processes. At the beginning of this review, the physical changes, chemical changes, and morphological evolution mechanism of various thermoplastic polymers under different application modes of ultrasonic energy field are introduced. Subsequently, the process principles, characteristics, and latest developments of UAMIM and UPMIM are scientifically summarized. Particularly, some representative performance advantages of different polymers based on ultrasonic plasticization are further exemplified with a deeper understanding of polymer-MIM relationships. Finally, the challenges and opportunities of power ultrasound in MIM are prospected, such as the mechanism understanding and commercial application.

Progressive Molecular Rearrangement and Heat Generation of Amorphous Polyethene Under Sliding Friction: Insight from the United-Atom Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Frictional heat has been widely used in various polymer-based advanced manufacturing. The fundamental understanding of the thermodynamics of the interfacial friction of polymer bulk materials can help to avoid compromising the process controllability. In this work, we have performed united-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to reveal the interfacial friction heating mechanism of amorphous polyethene (PE) in both the single sliding friction (SSF) and reciprocating sliding friction (RSF) modes. Different from the traditional view that the plastic deformation was the primary source of heat generation, the RSF process with no apparent plastic deformation in this work shows a better heat generation performance than SSF, where plastic deformation dominated the friction process. Our analysis uncovers that the mechanism of the interfacial friction heating enhancement in RSF can be attributed to the concentrated high-frequency chain motion related to molecular rearrangement, which is not clearly related to the deformation degree.

Effects of the Processing Parameters on the Shear Viscosity of Cyclic Olefin Copolymer Plasticized by Ultrasonic Vibration Energy.

Shear viscosity of the cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) plasticized by ultrasonic vibration energy is characterized by high pressure capillary rheometer. Two different plasticization modes were adopted to prepare the samples with an in-house developed prototype machine. Single-factor experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of ultrasonic energy on the shear viscosity. The influences of the processing parameters and the plasticization modes were analyzed and compared. The results showed that the shear viscosity of COC was reduced under various parameter combinations, and demonstrated a significant difference in the lower shear rate range in comparison with the control samples; the results of gel permeation chromatography (GPC) showed that the COC's number average molecular weight ( M ¯ n ) was decreased and the polymer dispersity index (PDI) was increased due to the plasticization by ultrasonic vibration energy. This could be further account for the decrease of the shear viscosity of COC. Moreover, the predominant ultrasonic parameter changed in different modes of plasticization according to the statistical analysis based on the Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) software.