A New Approach for Modelling Residence Time Distribution in a Co-rotating Twin Screw Extruder

Abstract

A model to determine the residence time distribution (RTD) in a co-rotating twin screw extruder is proposed. The method couples a thermomechanical approach with a chemical engineering approach and allows us to obtain the RTD without a fitting parameter. The global residence time is obtained using Ludovic^© twin screw modelling software and simple chemical reactors are chosen to depict the screw profile. Experiments were carried out to validate the model. The effects of feed rate and screw speed on the residence time distribution were studied. Results are in good agreement with the predictions of the model.