Two-dimensional numerical analysis of non-isothermal melt spinning with and without phase transition

A model and simulation method are developed for two-dimensional non-isothermal melt spinning of a visco elastic melt. The visco elastic stress is evaluated from a non-isothermal Giesekus constitutive equation developed by application of the pseudo-time method to the isothermal form of the model [J. Non-Newt. Fluid Mech. (2001)]. The crystallization kinetics is described with the model proposed by Nakamura et al. [J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 17 (1973) 1031], whereas the crystallization rate, which is a function of both temperature and molecular orientation, is evaluated according to the equation proposed by Ziabicki [Fundamentals of Fiber Formation, Wiley, New York, 1976]. The set of non-linear governing equations is solved by using the DEVSS-G/SUPG finite element method. Melt spinning is simulated for two different polymers: amorphous polystyrene and fast-crystallizing Nylon-6,6. The analysis demonstrates that although the kinematics in the thread-line are approximately one-dimensional, the radially non-uniform thermal history, caused by the leading order variation of the temperature gradient ∂T/ ∂r, gives rise to radially non-uniform visco elastic stresses. This stress gradient results in radially non-uniform molecular orientation and a strong radial variation in crystallinity for Nylon-6,6. The radially non-uniform stress profiles obtained from the simulations are in good agreement with experimental results for melt spinning of polystyrene. Simulations of Nylon-6,6 show that the thermally-induced crystallization depends strongly on the choice of the Avrami index n, and a sharp increase in crystallinity due to stress-induced crystallization is predicted only when the molecules are highly oriented in the drawing direction at high drawing speeds. The significant influences of visco elasticity, air drag, and operating conditions on non-isothermal melt spinning dynamics also are predicted.