Simulation of Multiphase Flow and Mixing in a Conveying Element of a Co-Rotating Twin-Screw Extruder by Using SPH

Abstract

Multiphase flows and mixing in partially filled conveying elements of twin-screw extruders (TSEs) were simulated by using smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH). A validation of SPH using experiment from the literature for a co-rotating twin-cam mixer indicated good agreement. A two-phase Poiseuille flow was also used to validate the accuracy of our approach. The results of two-phase flow in TSE show that the viscosity ratio significantly affects the flow and mixing of two-phase fluids. The symmetry of flow field is broken with different parameters. In the full filled case, the pressure squeezes particles into the gap, which is conducive to improve the performance of mixing of fluids. On the contrary, in the partially filled case, because there is no background pressure, particles tend to bypass the gap and flow to the cavity of the chamber. This work laid a foundation for further study of polymer blending by simulation.