A Study of Entrance Pressure Loss in Filled Polymer Melts

Abstract The influence of the molecular structure of the polymer matrix and filler loading on the entrance pressure loss of polyethylene/wood flour composites has been investigated in this research by means of a capillary rheometer equipped with an orifice die. The entry flow of talc- and glass-filled polyethylene composites has been investigated as well. It was found that the entrance pressure loss of wood filled polyethylene composites greatly increased with increasing the wood flour loading. Talc and solid glass spheres also increase the entrance pressure loss, however not as much as wood flour. It was also observed that composites based on narrow molecular weight distribution (MWD) resins exhibited larger entrance pressure loss than the broad MWD and branched polyethylene based ones. It was concluded that measurements of the entrance pressure loss reveal some interesting features of the polymer-filler interactions and could provide significant insights in the processing of highly filled polymer melts.