0000000000175059

AUTHOR

G. Marrucci

Mechanisms of polymer crystallization from flowing solutions

The recent experimental results on flow-induced crystallization by Pennings and coworkers show that extremely rigid polyethylene fibers can be obtained in a shear flow. On the other hand, the mechanism by which these flow-induced crystals are produced is still open to investigation. In this work a few aspects of fibrous crystal growth are theoretically investigated. The molecular dynamics of chains partly attached to the crystal and partly immersed in the solution is considered. The influence of temperature and of geometrical factors is also discussed.

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Ozone absorption in aqueous phenol solutions

Abstract The rate of ozone absorption in aqueous solutions of phenol was measured in a wetted-wall laboratory absorber. The liquid and gas flow rates were fixed as well as the pH and temperature. The phenol concentration was varied in the range 2–300 ppm and the ozone partial pressure over an eight fold range. The gas phase resistance to mass transfer was determined by absorbing SO2 from an SO2N2 mixture in KOH aqueous solutions. The results have been interpreted by means of a simple kinetic assumption.

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Dilute solution rheology of flexible macromolecules (bead–rod model)

The rheological behavior of dilute solutions of flexible macromolecules is studied by means of a freely jointed multiple bead–rod model. The solution of the equations describing the mechanics of the system is obtained by means of a numerical procedure, which applies to arbitrary flow conditions. The case of the transient stress in uniaxial elongational flow is developed in some detail. A comparison with bead–spring models shows both quantitative and qualitative differences which are briefly discussed.

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Capillary experiments of flow induced crystallization of HDPE

Flow-induced crystallization experiments are made in a capillary apparatus modified with a downstream reservoir under pressure. Capillary length, diameter, and entrance angle are changed, as well as flow rate. The results show that the crystallization temperature is influenced both by the elongational flow at the capillary entrance and by the shear flow along the capillary. The independent effect of the pressure equals that obtained under static conditions. The effect of shear is correlated in terms of shearing work.

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Limiting concepts in extensional flow

A characteristic feature of extensional flows is their potential capability of determining a stable, oriented structure in liquid materials containing elongated particles. With reference to flexible linear macromolecules, either in solution or as polymer melts, the limiting conditions under which such an oriented structure is actually possible are critically reviewed. It is seen that orientation can be obtained either when entanglements are present, i.e. when the polymer molecules form some sort of network, or, if the molecules behave entirely individually, only under very special circumstances. Further, if the objective is the “freezing” of the oriented structure in a partly crystalline, h…

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Testing of a constitutive equation for entangled networks by elongational and shear data of polymer melts

An entangled network such as a polymer melt or a concentrated solution is here described by a set of two simultaneous equations. One of them is a balance of entanglements, the other gives the stress in the classical form of aMaxwell equation.

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Comments on the validity of a common category of constitutive equations

Many constitutive equations for viscoelastic materials which have appeared in the literature are modifications of the linear viscoelasticity model. Their general form is: [5] $$\tau = \int\limits_0^\infty {(f_1 C + f_2 C^{ - 1)} ds.} $$ The memory functionsf 1 andf 2, are assumed to depend explicitly on either some instantaneous or some timeaveraged value of the invariants of the rate of strain. It is shown in this paper that the general theory of simple fluids with fading memory is based on certain assumptions of smoothness for the constitutive functional which are violated by constitutive equations of the type discussed. This implies that, should any real material obey eq. [5], with an ex…

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