NOVEL BEM SIMULATION OF MIXING IN POLYMER FLOWS INCLUDING NONLINEAR EFFECTS

摘要

When numerically analyzing mixing in polymer processes, there are several difficulties that the engineer will encounter; such as moving boundaries, complex geometries and non-linear material behavior. The Boundary Element Method (BEM), as a technique which requires only boundaries (surfaces) to be meshed, is ideal to simulate problems with moving boundaries and complex geometries. However, the introduction of non-linear material behavior requires domain information. This study applies the Monte Carlo technique to integrate the domain and keep the boundary-only discretization. Results show the influence of non―linear effects, such as shear-thinning viscosity, when characterizing mixing in polymer processing equipment.