Author(s)

B.A. Davis & T.A. Osswald

Abstract

When numerically simulating polymer processes the main concern of the engineer has been to accurately represent the material behavior using complex models. The labor intensity and requirements on computer performance are multiplied by the added complexity of moving boundaries. There are two types of moving boundaries which are very common in polymer processing, moving free boundaries and moving solid boundaries. Moving free boundary problems are encountered in mold filling, extrudate swell and coating problems, to name a few. Solid moving boundaries are those where the actual cavity that contains the polymer changes in shape during the process, i.e., the rotating mixing heads in an internal batch mixer or the screw and mixing elements in a single screw e

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