Simulation of melt viscosity effect on the rate of solidification in polymer

Abstract

Phase field model has been successfully derived from ordinary metal phase field equation to simulate the behavior of semi-crystalline polymer solidification phenomenon. To obtain the polymer phase field model, a non-conserved phase field equation can be expanded to include the unique polymer parameters, which do not exist in metals, for example, polymer melt viscosity and diffusion coefficient. In order to expand this model, we include free energy density and non-local free energy density based on Harrowel-Oxtoby and Ginzburg-Landau theorem for polymers. The expansion principle for a higher order of binary phase field parameter was employed to obtain fully modified phase field equation. To optimize the final properties of the products, the solidification phenomenon in polymers is very important. Here, we use our modified equation to investigate the effect of melt viscosity on the rate of solidification by employing ordinary differential equation numerical methods. It was found that the rate of solidification is related to the melting temperature and the kinetic coefficient.