Prediction of Flow Effect on Crystal Growth of Semi-Crystalline Polymers Using a Multi-Scale Phase-Field Approach
A multi-scale phase-field approach, which couples the mesoscopic crystallization with the microscopic orientation of chain segments and macroscopic viscoelastic melt flow, is proposed to study how the crystal growth of semi-crystalline polymers is affected by flows. To make the simulation feasible,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2017-11-01
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| Series: | Polymers |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/9/12/634 |
| _version_ | 1811220941816987648 |
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| author | Xiaodong Wang Jie Ouyang Ying Liu |
| author_facet | Xiaodong Wang Jie Ouyang Ying Liu |
| author_sort | Xiaodong Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A multi-scale phase-field approach, which couples the mesoscopic crystallization with the microscopic orientation of chain segments and macroscopic viscoelastic melt flow, is proposed to study how the crystal growth of semi-crystalline polymers is affected by flows. To make the simulation feasible, we divide the problem into three parts. In the first part, a finitely extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE) dumbbell model is used to simulate the flow induced molecular structure. In the second part, formulas for estimating the density, orientation and aspect ratio of nuclei upon the oriented molecular structure are derived. Finally, in the third part, a massive mathematical model that couples the phase-field, temperature field, flow field and orientation field is established to model the crystal growth with melt flow. Two-dimensional simulations are carried out for predicting the flow effect on the crystal growth of isotactic polystyrene under a plane Poiseuille flow. In solving the model, a semi-analytical method is adopted to avoid the numerical difficult of a “high Weissenberg number problem” in the first part, and an efficient fractional step method is used to reduce the computing complexity in the third part. The simulation results demonstrate that flow strongly affects the morphology of single crystal but does not bring a significant influence on the holistic morphology of bulk crystallization. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T07:50:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-25837466af8d48aea7f973f88f2ca997 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4360 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T07:50:49Z |
| publishDate | 2017-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Polymers |
| spelling | doaj.art-25837466af8d48aea7f973f88f2ca9972022-12-22T03:41:36ZengMDPI AGPolymers2073-43602017-11-0191263410.3390/polym9120634polym9120634Prediction of Flow Effect on Crystal Growth of Semi-Crystalline Polymers Using a Multi-Scale Phase-Field ApproachXiaodong Wang0Jie Ouyang1Ying Liu2School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, ChinaDepartment of Applied Mathematics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710129, ChinaSchool of Arts and Sciences, Shaanxi University of Science & Technology, Xi’an 710021, ChinaA multi-scale phase-field approach, which couples the mesoscopic crystallization with the microscopic orientation of chain segments and macroscopic viscoelastic melt flow, is proposed to study how the crystal growth of semi-crystalline polymers is affected by flows. To make the simulation feasible, we divide the problem into three parts. In the first part, a finitely extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE) dumbbell model is used to simulate the flow induced molecular structure. In the second part, formulas for estimating the density, orientation and aspect ratio of nuclei upon the oriented molecular structure are derived. Finally, in the third part, a massive mathematical model that couples the phase-field, temperature field, flow field and orientation field is established to model the crystal growth with melt flow. Two-dimensional simulations are carried out for predicting the flow effect on the crystal growth of isotactic polystyrene under a plane Poiseuille flow. In solving the model, a semi-analytical method is adopted to avoid the numerical difficult of a “high Weissenberg number problem” in the first part, and an efficient fractional step method is used to reduce the computing complexity in the third part. The simulation results demonstrate that flow strongly affects the morphology of single crystal but does not bring a significant influence on the holistic morphology of bulk crystallization.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/9/12/634crystal growthcrystallizationorientationsemi-crystalline polymerflow effectphase-fieldmulti-scale |
| spellingShingle | Xiaodong Wang Jie Ouyang Ying Liu Prediction of Flow Effect on Crystal Growth of Semi-Crystalline Polymers Using a Multi-Scale Phase-Field Approach Polymers crystal growth crystallization orientation semi-crystalline polymer flow effect phase-field multi-scale |
| title | Prediction of Flow Effect on Crystal Growth of Semi-Crystalline Polymers Using a Multi-Scale Phase-Field Approach |
| title_full | Prediction of Flow Effect on Crystal Growth of Semi-Crystalline Polymers Using a Multi-Scale Phase-Field Approach |
| title_fullStr | Prediction of Flow Effect on Crystal Growth of Semi-Crystalline Polymers Using a Multi-Scale Phase-Field Approach |
| title_full_unstemmed | Prediction of Flow Effect on Crystal Growth of Semi-Crystalline Polymers Using a Multi-Scale Phase-Field Approach |
| title_short | Prediction of Flow Effect on Crystal Growth of Semi-Crystalline Polymers Using a Multi-Scale Phase-Field Approach |
| title_sort | prediction of flow effect on crystal growth of semi crystalline polymers using a multi scale phase field approach |
| topic | crystal growth crystallization orientation semi-crystalline polymer flow effect phase-field multi-scale |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/9/12/634 |
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