Numerical Studies of Nucleation and Bubble Growth in Thermoplastic Foams at high Nucleation Rates
The influence volume approach (IVA) provides a coherent way of modeling the simultaneous nucleation and bubble growth during the foaming of thermoplastic polymers. In this work, a numerical model based on the influence volume approach is used to investigate the path to creating thermoplastic foams with nano-cellular structure. In particular, the diffusion of the blowing agent inside the polymer during the initial nucleation and later during bubble growth is analyzed. It is found that as the depressurization rate increases the gas diffusion becomes the limiting factor for bubble growth allowing for greater number of nuclei to be formed. However after a critical value of depressurization rate, further increase in depressurization rate appears to have no effect on the final bubble diameter. We comment on this critical depressurization rate based on classical nucleation theory.
- Research Organization:
- Dow Chemical Co., Midland, MI (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0003916
- OSTI ID:
- 1111338
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-Dow-3916-2
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 11th International FOAMS Conference, Seattle, WA (United States), September 11-12, 2013
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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