Evolution of residence time distribution and fill degree in co-rotating twin-screw extruder

The residence time distribution (RTD) evolution along a co-rotating twin-screw extruder with a split barrel was experimentally investigated by using the pre-mixed particles of polystyrene (PS) with anthracene as the tracer.The samples on the screw were taken out from the specially designed extruder, which could be dead-stopped at a given time and its barrel opened within several seconds.A three-parameter function was used to fit the experimentally measured RTD.The calculated results fit the experimental data very well.The reverse screw elements and kneading block had much longer residence time and resulted in effective mixing.Based on the average residence time of different screw zones and volume flow rate of molten PS, the fill degree in different screw zones was estimated.The fill degree results proved that the similar structure of screw elements might have different degrees of fill due to the effect of neighboring elements, and too close alignment of kneading zones might lead to ‘besiegement’ of materials in the zone between them.