Tuning of mixing zone parameters in a dynamic mixer and performance comparison with screw-based mixers

Abstract

A new dynamic mixer has been designed for the mixing of two polymer melts. Three main design parameters (number of circles of holes N, number of holes M per circle, and diameter of the holes d3) for the mixing zone of the dy-namic mixer were selected to study their influences on the pressure drop δp and the segregation scale S using Taguchi orthogonal arrays method. The influences of flow rate and rotational speed were also investigated. In addition, the melt mixing quality was compared with that of screw-based and slotted-screw mixers. The results showed that the most sig-nificant factor influencing S and S δp is N. Both δp and S increased with increasing flow rate, and decreased with in-creasing rotational speed. Compared to the screw-based and slotted-screw mixers, the dynamic mixer had a uniform melt mixing quality and shorter length.