Polymer Flow Modeling

Modeling of polymer and other non-Newtonian fluid flows with the COMSOL^® software is applied across a wide range of industries for applications such as polymer processing, chemical processing and manufacturing, and food & beverage production. Many fluids, such as molten polymers, paints, coatings, shampoos, and food products, exhibit complex non-Newtonian behavior. This includes shear thinning or thickening and time-dependent (thixotropic) behavior, or a fluid may require a yield stress before flow begins. When modeling the flow and processing of such fluids, it is necessary that their behavior is correctly captured.

The Polymer Flow Module, an add-on to COMSOL Multiphysics^®, includes features for modeling both inelastic non-Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids that develop elastic stresses due to the presence of polymer chains. With such capabilities, the software can be used to study processes such as polymer extrusion, mold filling, film coating, mixing, and chemical processing. These capabilities can further be coupled with features for multiphase flow, nonisothermal flow, reacting flow, and polymer curing in order to accurately describe complex multiphysics processes.

In this webinar, we will discuss the capabilities of the COMSOL^® software for modeling polymer and non-Newtonian flows. A live demonstration will highlight the workflow for building a polymer processing model.