Chemical Engineering Commons^™

In-Line Measurement Of Solibility Of Physical Blowing Agents In Thermoplastic Melts As Related To Extrusion Foaming, Qiang Zhang

Dissertations

A novel in-line method for measuring physical blowing agent solubility in thermoplastic melts in extrusion foaming equipment has been developed in this study. This method uses video microscopy in connection with a foaming extruder (single or twin-screw) to generate solubility data by observing the onset of gas bubble formation/dissolution. This method offers a number of advantages over the existing conventional methods. It can be easily used to obtain solubility data for many foamable thermoplastic-physical blowing agent systems at high pressure and temperature near actual foaming conditions. Data generated using this method could be directly used to characterize and control a …