Fast Design of Mixing Sections by Means of Network Theory

Single-screw extruders make use of mixing and shearing sections to ensure good thermal and mechanical homogeneity at high mass throughput rates. Nowadays, these sections are usually designed empirically or with very simple estimation formulas. Therefore, important interpretation criteria, like pressure loss, temperature increase, average shear rate or residence time profile are only determined very inaccurately. The 3D finite-element analysis (FEA) can determine these parameters very precisely, but with very long computation times. The network theory allows an economic calculation with a sufficient accuracy of the aforementioned data. This paper describes the modeling of extruder mixing sections and the solution of these models by means of the network theory.