This paper presents a brief review of the twin-screw extruder (TSE) process, analyses the fluid flow aspects of a new application of TSE in rheomixing casting, and simulates fundamental micro-mechanisms of the rheological behaviour of metallurgical alloys. The TSE is widely used as a mixing tool in the polymer industry. The numerical simulation of the TSE process is complex and there are only f...

The flow fields in polymer processing exhibit complex behavior with chaotic characteristics, due in part to the non-linearity of the field equations describing them. In chaotic flows fluid elements are highly sensitive to their initial positions and velocities. A fundamental understanding of such characteristics is essential for optimization and design of equipment used for distributive mixing....

Following the recent success of hot-melt extrusion in the pharmaceutical field, monitoring and control are increasingly applied. In this study, a mathematical model consisting of mass and energy balance partial differential equations is developed and parameters related to material transportation are inferred from experimental data collected from a pilot plant. This data is relative to the outpu...

In the present study, we prepared solid dispersions of water-insoluble and soluble drugs (ethenzamide (ETZ) and theophylline (THEO)) by the twin screw extruder method, which made it possible to control both kneading and heating at the same time under the fusion point of each drug, using three types of the controlled-release high-molecular-weight substance Carbopol (CAR) as the carrier. The soli...

A prototype modular single screw extruder fitted with a screw extracting device is used to monitor melting of an immiscible polymer blend (PP/PA6, with different weight ratios) in this popular type of processing equipment. As anticipated, the observed phenomena are much more complex than those involved in extruding PP or PA6, when the well known Maddock/Tadmor mechanism is valid. Consequently a...