Sofiane Belhabib

Study of the rheological behavior of polypropylene/polyethylene extruded mixture using an instrumented die

During the recycling of polypropylene (PP), some pollutants are likely to be present in the polymer. Most of these pollutants are polyethylene (PE) which tends to form a heterogeneous blend with PP due to their incompatible nature. In the present study, PP and PE were extruded with different volume fractions of PE. The pressure drop and the temperature variation within the flow in a cylindrical die were studied. A finite element model was used in order to predict the rheological behaviors of the studied polymer mixture ratios. The results obtained in this work show that the rheological response of the blend is very sensitive to the viscosity of the minor polymer when it is lower than the viscosity of the major polymer.