Intrinsic route to melt fracture in polymer extrusion: a weakly nonlinear subcritical instability of viscoelastic poiseuille flow

As is well known, the extrusion rate of polymers from a cylindrical tube or slit (a "die") is in practice limited by the appearance of "melt fracture" instabilities which give rise to unwanted distortions or even fracture of the extrudate. We present the results of a weakly nonli...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2003-01, Vol.90 (2), p.024502-024502, Article 024502
Main Authors: Meulenbroek, Bernard, Storm, Cornelis, Bertola, Volfango, Wagner, Christian, Bonn, Daniel, van Saarloos, Wim
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:As is well known, the extrusion rate of polymers from a cylindrical tube or slit (a "die") is in practice limited by the appearance of "melt fracture" instabilities which give rise to unwanted distortions or even fracture of the extrudate. We present the results of a weakly nonlinear analysis which gives evidence for an intrinsic generic route to melt fracture via a weakly nonlinear subcritical instability of viscoelastic Poiseuille flow. This instability and the onset of associated melt fracture phenomena appear at a well-defined ratio of the elastic stresses to viscous stresses of the polymer solution.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.90.024502