Optimization of the polymer foam process by the residence time distribution approach

M. Larochette , Didier Graebling (1) , Djamel Nasri , Frédéric Léonardi (1)

1 IPREM - Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les materiaux

In this work, we used the residence time distribution to study the polystyrene foaming during an extrusion process. The extruder associated with a gear pump is simply and quantitatively described by three ontinuously stirred tank reactors with recycling loops and one plug-flow reactor. The blowing agent used is CO 2 and is obtained by thermal decomposition of a chemical blowing agent (CBA). This approach allows the optimization of the density of the foam in accordance with the CBA kinetic of decomposition. © 2009 American Chemical Society.

Domaines: Polymères

M. Larochette, Didier Graebling, Djamel Nasri, Frédéric Léonardi. Optimization of the polymer foam process by the residence time distribution approach. Industrial and engineering chemistry research, 2009, 48 (10), pp.4884-4891. ⟨10.1021/ie800836j⟩. ⟨hal-01615980⟩