International Polymer Processing, Vol.13, No.4, 334-341, 1998
Distributive mixing in an axial discharge continuous mixer
The axial discharge continuous mixer-LCMAX 40, which combines the features of a continuous mixer and the co-rotating twin screw extruder, was analyzed in this work for its distributive mixing efficiency We analyzed the distributive miring performance for various rotor configurations. Four designs with either alternating or block arrangements of pushing and counter-pushing units were investigated A fluid dynamics analysis package-FIDAP, based on the finite element method was used to model the flow behavior of a power law model fluid. Distributive mixing was quantified using particle distributions along the axial distance. Residence time distribution (RTD) functions were calculated and found to reveal interesting information related to design features. The influence of design on the evolution of the particle path length and shear strain distribution was also discussed. The counter-pushing units and their arrangements were found to play an important role in distributive mixing.