Film Casting Dynamics and Instability Analysis
Summary
Film casting involves the extrusion of a polymer melt through a flat die, followed by controlled stretching, cooling and solidification to produce thin sheets or membranes. The dynamics of this process are governed by the interplay between viscoelastic flow, heat transfer, and crystallisation kinetics. Non-isothermal conditions within the die and downstream cooling zone give rise to gradients in temperature and viscosity that affect thickness uniformity, surface morphology and final mechanical properties. Flow-induced crystallisation can accelerate solidification and generate inhomogeneous crystalline structures, while viscoelastic stresses may trigger instabilities such as thickness undulations or oscillatory draw phenomena. A comprehensive instability analysis examines critical draw ratios, kinematic wave propagation and the influence of boundary conditions on stability thresholds. Advances in constitutive modelling and numerical simulation have led to predictive tools that link polymer rheology, die geometry and cooling rates to product quality. Beyond packaging films, these insights underpin the manufacture of high-performance membranes for energy storage, barrier coatings and biomedical applications, driving optimisation for both industrial scale-up and new material systems.
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Film Casting Dynamics and Instability Analysis publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in film casting dynamics and instability analysis across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Film casting: A manufacturing process in which polymer melt is extruded through a flat die, stretched and cooled to form thin sheets.
Flow-induced crystallisation: The acceleration of polymer crystallisation under strong shear or extensional flow, leading to altered crystalline morphology.
Extensional viscosity: A measure of resistance to stretching flow, critical for predicting stability and uniformity in film elongation.
Non-isothermal process: A flow situation in which temperature varies spatially or temporally, affecting rheology and solidification.
Upper-convected Maxwell model: A viscoelastic constitutive equation that describes time-dependent stress response with a single relaxation time and convected derivatives.
References
- Importance of heat transfer in membrane extrusion process involving flow-induced crystallization. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (2023).
- Measurement and modeling of uniaxial and planar extensional viscosities for linear isotactic polypropylenes. Physics of Fluids (2023).
- Non-isothermal process of viscoelastic polymer fi lm casting. Plasticheskie massy (2019).
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