Influence of shearing history on the properties of polymer melt. II

Abstract

The flow pattern of molten polymer through capillaries was studied by using a tracing method. An incompatible polymer was added to polypropylene as a tracer, and the influence of shear in a capillary rheometer on the tracer particle size as well as on the distribution of the particles in the extrudate in relation to flow was studied. It was found that the particle size varied inversely with shear rate of extrusion, capillary aspect ratio, polymer viscosity, and extrusion temperature. The flow was found to be of the telescopic type, and the tracer particle size was independent of position along the radius of the cylindrical extrudate. It is assumed that the supermolecular structure of a polymer melt is of the cluster type suggested by Busse, and it is postulated that spherical clusters of molecules in the melt are modified by shear analogously to the spherical particles of the incompatible tracer polymer. The large spectrum of melt properties obtainable, by various shearing treatments, from a polymer of constant molecular structure suggests that a wide range of supermolecular structures must be possible in the polymer melt.