Polymer Engineering and Science, Vol.39, No.3, 457-468, 1999
Bubble growth in reaction injection molded parts foamed by ultrasonic excitation
Processing of microcellular foam was studied for polyurethane. Assuming that the bubble growth is controlled by diffusion, theoretical prediction was carried out numerically to understand the bubble growth mechanism in the cavity during mold filling. Final bubble sizes were also predicted by considering the gelation time and the diffusion boundary. Viscosity change of the mixed polyurethane resin during polymerization reaction was predicted by considering reaction kinetics. The gelation time was determined to terminate the numerical calculation. The diffusion boundary was predicted based on the number of nucleated bubbles that had been determined both theoretically and experimentally. For processing of polyurethane foam by reaction injection molding, ultrasonic excitation was applied to the mixture of polyol and isocyanate. The polyol resin was supersaturated with nitrogen gas at an elevated pressure and ultrasonic excitation was applied to the mixture after impingement mixing of two components of the selected polyurethane system. Bubble nucleation was induced by the ultrasonic excitation and the bubbles were grown as the gas was supplied to the bubble from the resin.