Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949

Screw extrusion of food powders: prediction and performance

X. Weert, C. J. Lawrence*, M. J. Adams, B. J. Briscoe
Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2BY, UK
Received 14 September 1999; accepted 18 September 2000

Abstract

This paper reports experimental data obtained on an instrumented screw extruder. The material used was a starch powder that was
independently characterised in a uniaxial compaction experiment. The data have been carefully analysed at some length and are
compared with a simple model based on an enhancement of the well-known model by Darnell and Mol (SPE J. 12 (1956) 20). The
Darnell and Mol model is modi"ed in order to extend its predictive capacity to that required by experiments which have been
conducted with an industrial-sized powder extruder. Not only are the predictions shown to be in good accord with the experiments,
but the model also contributes to the understanding of the extrusion process by identifying the variables and parameters to which the
system is most sensitive, and thereby becomes a potentially powerful design tool. This insight is gained at the expense of the additional
detail which might have been obtained with traditional "nite element methods but which would have fallen beyond the experimental
resolution of the system. Indeed, the experimental data currently available do not allow discrimination between the low-order model
reported here and a model of much greater sophistication. In addition, and more importantly perhaps, the paper demonstrates that
even in the apparently diametrically opposed cases of, on the one hand, traction-arrested #ow (as exempli"ed by uniaxial compaction)
and, on the other, traction-induced #ow (in a single-screw extruder), it is possible to abstract from the simpler system the principles,
methods and data that can be applied to the more complex geometry.  2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Keywords: Compacted length; Conveying angle; Back pressure; Throughput; Friction; Rheology

1. Introduction E the need to deal with increased compositional #exibil-

The food, ceramics, polymer and metallurgical indus-
tries widely employ equipment such as extruders and roll
mills, in which forces are transmitted to the processed
materials via the walls of the equipment. Nowadays it is
necessary to construct integrated manufacturing lines,
which are tailor-made to meet the speci"c processing
needs of the rheologically complex materials being for-
med. This allows the manufacture of a product with the
desired properties and within the prescribed cost. How-
ever, this task has become progressively more demanding
for at least the following reasons:
E scheduling and control problems as a result of batch
and semi-batch production on integrated manufactur-
ing lines;
E pressure to reduce development time-scale and in-
crease production e$ciencies;
* Corresponding author. Tel.: #020-7594-5622; fax: #020-7594-
5604.
E-mail address: c.lawrence@ic.ac.uk (C. J. Lawrence).
 Visiting Professor from Unilever Research, Port Sunlight.
ity and a greater variety of raw materials;
E a moribund technological foundation from which to
select an increasing diversity of equipment.
The established method of pilot-plant scale development
has relied upon simple scale-up models derived empiric-
ally from industrial experience of more &#uid-like', as
opposed to more &solid-like' materials. These routes com-
monly prove to be conservative and as a consequence
inappropriate developments may involve considerable
departures from optimum design, performance and
operation of extruders.
This paper presents analyses of two closely related
processes: the uniaxial compaction and the single-screw
extrusion of starch food powders. One of the principal
di!erences between the two processes is that the helical
extruder is de"ned by a much more complex geometry
than the linear compaction cell. The other main di!er-
ence is a direct consequence of the "rst, and resides in
the fact that the extrusion process relies upon wall friction
as a traction as well as a retarding mechanism, whereas
in compaction the wall friction has a retarding function
only.

0009-2509/01/$ - see front matter  2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

PII: S 0 0 0 9 - 2 5 0 9 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 4 6 3 - 2
1934 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949
It will be demonstrated that the apparent di!erences
between the two systems do not impede a comparison of
the two; on the contrary, a deconvolution of the intrinsic
bulk response of the starch and the boundary condi-
tions from the e!ects of the scale and geometry of the
processing engine allows the results from the one to be
transposed to and used in the context of the other. This
approach obviously necessitates mathematical models
identifying and isolating the material properties and geo-
metrical parameters in the description of the response of
both systems. Although quite sophisticated mathema-
tical descriptions are available for the uniaxial compaction
cell, and, indeed, for the single-screw extruder, the ap-
proach will be demonstrated to be valid with simple, quasi
one-dimensional models. Moreover, the models used high-
light the physical similitude between the two processes.
The two systems are similar because the stresses in both are
uniaxial to leading order. The deviation from a uniaxial
stress state in either case is determined by the wall friction.
As long as the friction coe$cients are not too large, then the
stress states are similar and the analogy is valid.
In principle, the approach ought to be applicable to
any two processing engines which are su$ciently closely
related, and there is therefore a degree of arbitrariness
in the choice of the two processes adopted here. The
uniaxial compaction cell, however, combines the advan-
tages of being cheap, robust, durable and easy to operate
with the availability of a su$cient and simple "rst-order
model, and serves as the ideal means of obtaining mater-
ial parameters for use in the extrusion model. There are
precedents for this approach. Spalding, Hyun, and
Hughes (1997) employed uniaxial compaction of a poly-
mer powder as a method for measuring the coe$cient of
friction and also the ratio of the stresses acting in the
axial and lateral directions. Other methods for measuring
the coe$cients of friction of polymers as a function of the
sliding velocity and temperature have included roller
devices (Spalding & Hyun, 1995) and torque devices
(Gamache, La#eur, Peiti, & Vergnes, 1999).
With the current approach, it becomes possible to use the
extrusion model as a design tool for the extruder, or, con-
versely, for the class of materials dealt with in this article,
the extruder can be used as a rheometer in its own right.
1.1. Uniaxial compaction
In the uniaxial compaction experiment, the sample is
con"ned between two punches and a cylindrical die
which is supported by a "xed table. The lower punch and
the die do not move with respect to each other (apart
from a relatively small machine compliance). The load is
applied via the upper punch under conditions of constant
velocity. The applied and transmitted loads are recorded
by load cells which are placed at the extremities of the
punches. The instantaneous ratio of the transmitted to
the applied stress is the stress transmission ratio.
The commonly adopted Janssen}Walker analysis
(Janssen, 1895; Walker, 1966) for powder compaction
considers a di!erential slice of material (dz) in the die
subjected to a compressive stress
and balances the
XX
forces operating on this slice. Part of the load is carried
by the die walls through wall friction, and the remainder
of the load is transmitted to the next slice down. The
friction is considered to be proportional (with a friction
coe$cient  ) to the radial normal stress at the wall.
U
Since the stress distribution will not be homogeneous, the
axial stress at the wall is, in general, not equal to the
mean stress, but will be a fraction F thereof. Further-
more, the axial stress is related to the radial normal stress
by the material parameter k. This analysis is not exact
since
is not a principal stress. However, as long as the
XX
friction coe$cients are not too large, the stress state is
uniaxial to leading order, and the analysis is approxim-
ately valid.
Integration of the force balance now gives the stress
transmission ratio



4 kF
R(z)" XX "exp ! U z (1)

D
?
as a function of the depth z. The reference stress
is the
?
mean applied pressure. The Walker correction factor
F generally lies in the range 0.3(F(0.4 and corrects
for the di!erence between the mean axial stress and that
acting at the die walls (Walker, 1966). For an isotropic
material, k is related to the Poisson ratio  by
k"/(1!). D is the diameter of the die. In the experi-
ment, the overall stress transmission ratio is measured at
z"¸, the length of the sample. Then the combination of
measured quantities,
D
! ln R" kF (2)
4¸ U
gives the wall friction coe$cient  as a product with kF.
U
The friction coe$cient is generally assumed to be a con-
stant, in spite of common tribological evidence to the
contrary (Briscoe, 1998). Indeed, the experiments reported
below show that the materials used have a variable coe$c-
ient of friction. This characteristic will be incorporated
into the principal elements of the extrusion model.
1.2. Single screw extrusion
Depending upon the material being extruded and
upon the operating conditions of the extruder, up to four
fundamentally di!erent regions can be distinguished in
a single-screw extruder:
E the feed zone, where the screw channel is not com-
pletely "lled and loose powder is gradually con-
solidated to a coherent solid mass. This extends from
the feed hopper to
 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949
E the solids conveying zone where powder is compacted
and transported to a good approximation as a plug,
and
E the melting zone, where the material begins to melt
and form a paste. When all the material has been
melted or fused, it enters the "nal
E metering or pumping zone, where thorough mixing
occurs and the material reaches its maximal temper-
ature and pressure.
A comprehensive model of a single-screw extruder ought
to comprise at least the latter three regions. A typical
extruder is sketched in Fig. 1. The transition from one
regime to the other is not necessarily re#ected in screw
design and is not associated with speci"c screw sections,
although many screws have been designed with the speci-
"c functions in mind. In fact, any screw section can
perform all four functions simultaneously (Chung, 1970).
In the present study, the screw is of the simplest possible
kind, i.e. untapered and of constant pitch, so that it
resembles the one depicted in Fig. 1. The process con-
sidered here is relatively simple, comprising a feed zone
and a solids conveying zone. The screw extruder is main-
tained at a nearly uniform temperature by the water in
the heating/cooling jacket, and heat transfer e!ects are
not considered in the model.
The extrusion of rubber was originally carried out in
the 19th century using ram devices (White, 1969). How-
ever, with the growth in demand for continuous pro-
cesses, such as the coating of wires and cables, rams were
superseded by single-screw extruders. In contrast to the
reciprocating action of a ram, these devices continuously
convey and pressurise the feed material by the rotating
action of a screw in a closely "tting barrel. The genesis of
a practical machine has been attributed to Gray (1879)
although independent developments were made by Fran-
cis Shaw in the same year, also in England, and by John
Royle in the United States (White, 1969). The processing
of thermoplastic polymers was based largely on develop-
ments in the rubber industry including the application of
single-screw extruders as plasticating devices. The "rst
extruder speci"cally for this purpose was constructed in
ca. 1935 by Paul Troester in Germany. More recently, the
Fig. 1. Diagrammatic cross-section of a typical single-screw extruder:
(1) hopper; (2) feed pocket; (3) barrel heating jacket; (4) control ther-
mocouple or pressure sensor; (5) screw #ight; (6) barrel; (7) die.
1935
single-screw extruder has been used in a wide range of
industries such as ceramics and chemicals. Currently,
a major usage is in the food processing industry
for generic soft solid processing operations (Adams &
Briscoe, 1993).
Modelling of the single-screw extruder has been under-
taken from a great number of perspectives and with
varying levels of re"nement. According to Rauwendaal
(1986), the "rst theoretical analysis of plasticating extru-
sion was reported in an anonymous article (anon, 1922)
which has been attributed to Rowell and Finlayson
(1928). This early work was concerned with screw viscos-
ity pumps, and could therefore be applied to the metering
zone of the screw extruder. It was not until the mid-1950s
that Darnell and Mol (1956) published the classic work
on the solids conveying zone. Nearly a decade later, Booy
(1963) carried out the "rst detailed analysis of the melt
zone. Since that time, the main focus of theoretical work
has been on the melt and metering zones, e.g. Fenner
(1979). Traditionally, extrusion has found its major ap-
plication in the polymer industry, and it is argued that
the behaviour of polymer systems is controlled almost
entirely by the melt response, as attested to by the large
body of work existing on this subject. For the solids
conveying zone, most workers (e.g. Amella, La#eur,
& Aprin, 1991) have generally adopted an extension of
the Darnell and Mol (1956) model which was developed
by Broyer and Tadmor (1972). A modi"cation of the
Darnell and Mol (1956) model was also proposed by
Campbell and Dontula (1995).
A very large body of work exists about two- and
three-dimensional numerical modelling including both
"nite element (Ghoreishy & Nouri, 1999) and CFD simu-
lations (Nichetti & Manas-Zloczower, 1999). A major
advance has been the integrated modelling of the com-
plete plasticating process (Wilczynski, 1999; Amella et al.,
1991; MacGregor, Vlachopoulos, & Vlcek, 1997). How-
ever, the potentially superior numerical precision of these
methods does presuppose equally precise knowledge of
the constitutive parameters of the material under consid-
eration and its interaction with the evolving boundaries
of the processing engine. Arguably, this knowledge is
frequently available in the "eld of polymer melts and, to
a lesser extent, in the "eld of paste rheology, although the
amount of work still undertaken in these "elds is indica-
tive of the unsatisfactory level of knowledge available.
Illustrative in this context is the work of Sinha (1994),
Halliday and Smith (1995), Adams, Briscoe, Biswas, and
Kamyab (1991), Adams and Briscoe (1993), Pruvost,
Cor"eld, Kingman, and Lawrence (1998) and Cor"eld,
Adams, Briscoe, Fryer, and Lawrence (1999).
 Especially with regards to wall slip, which is less well understood for
polymer melts and pastes than for powders. See, for example, Barnes
(1995) and Yilmazer and Kalyon (1989) for accounts of wall slip in
pastes and polymer melts.
1936 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949

The focus on the melt section is not always appropri-

ate. With the diversi"cation of applications into other
industrial sectors, involving the extrusion of pastes or
solid-like materials, as described previously, there has
been a renewed interest in the solids conveying zone.
After a de"nition of this section of the extruder, we shall
examine it more closely with the aid of an improved
version of the Darnell and Mol model (1956).
In addition to the assumption of plug #ow, most mod-
els of the solids conveying zone are based on the follow-
ing assumptions, which are largely those of the original
Darnell and Mol model (1956):

E the plug behaves as a rigid solid;

E interface contact occurs between the plug and the
whole surface of the con"ning geometry;
E there is no yight clearance between the screw and the
barrel wall. In reality, the clearance will be sealed
almost immediately by the powder so that leakage of
any signi"cance will not occur;
Fig. 2. The velocities and angles used in the extruder model, where
v denotes the motion of the plug relative to the engine as a whole,

v denotes the motion of the plug in the down channel direction

relative to the screw, and v is the velocity di!erence between the
E a constant taper angle. The taper angle is often neg-
lected altogether: many screws are straight;
E gravitational e!ects can be neglected, along with the
equally insigni"cant centripetal and Coriolis acceler-
ations;
E Coulomb wall boundary conditions. The friction coe$-
cients on the barrel and screw surfaces are, in general,
diwerent due to di!erent surface machining and tem-
peratures.
In the absence of centrifugal and Coriolis terms, the
system is identical to a stationary screw in a rotating
barrel (which, the geometry being stationary, is easier to
model). Furthermore, in many cases the geometry may be
approximated by &unwinding' the screw to form a rectan-
gular channel. The barrel wall is then a plane surface that
slides over the straight open channel at angle  equal to
the #ight angle of the screw (Fig. 2). This approximation
is particularly useful for screws with shallow channels.
Another simpli"cation which is generally made with-
out being explicitly stated is the neglect of the curvature
of the transition from the screw root to the #ight.
A smooth transition is bene"cial to the screw's longevity,
but an important side e!ect is that material is less likely
to be trapped in the seam. In the present context of the
extrusion of powders and sti! pastes, this simpli"cation is
not expected to lead to signi"cant errors.
The one-dimensional analytical Darnell and Mol
model (1956) is discussed in the following section. For
a discussion of the historical "rst steps relating solids
conveying in a single-screw extruder, the reader is refer-
red to their thorough documentation of the work of their
predecessors. The materials characterisation procedure is
presented in Section 3, with constitutive data for density,
friction coe$cient and Poisson ratio of the starch pow-
der. The extrusion experiments, which are the central


barrel and the plug. In most applications, the conveying angle is small:

(53.
part of the work, are described in Section 4, where the
data are also presented. The data are analysed and dis-
cussed further in Section 5, in terms of the overall pres-
sure rise, the friction coe$cients, the compacted length,
the pressure #uctuations, the throughput and the overall
extruder performance. Conclusions are presented in Sec-
tion 6.
2. The model
For many years the Darnell and Mol model (1956) has
usefully served in various branches of industry, and its
use below, in an improved form, justi"es a detailed dis-
cussion. They proposed a robust model in which simple
kinematic considerations relate the volumetric #ow rate
per revolution of the screw to the conveying angle. The
conveying angle, which is the angle of the relative motion
between the solid plug and the barrel wall, is then cal-
culated from axial force and torque balances over an
incremental slice of the plug. Although the Darnell and
Mol original work includes the principal e!ect of curva-
ture, they do not take into account the "nite width of the
#ights in their analysis (but they do in their numerical
calculations, and an explicit correction for the #ights has
been made by Broyer and Tadmor (1972)).
In the present work, another modi"cation has been
made to the Darnell and Mol model. This modi"cation
a!ects the model in a more fundamental way, though the
e!ect on the "nal equations is quite small. We shall derive
the new model in Section 2.3 after a presentation of the
Darnell and Mol model.
 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949 1937

2.1. Throughput and conveying angle

Fig. 2 shows the main geometric parameters and vel-

ocities in a vector diagram, and the de"nition of the
conveying angle
. In terms of the geometrical para-
meters presented in Fig. 2 and the revolution speed, the
extruder throughput is
Fig. 3. The element of the plug over which the Darnell and Mol force
Q"
ND H(D !H) and torque balances are made in the screw geometry (left) and with the
relevant forces acting upon it indicated (right).


sin
sin  e
; 1! , (3)
sin(
# )
(D !H)sin M equations in two unknowns: the pressure gradient dp/dz,
where Q is the volumetric throughput, N is the rotational and the net force per unit length FH/dz exerted upon the
speed ("2
N is the angular velocity), and the other plug by the pushing #ight. The force balance is given by
variables are indicated in Fig. 2. It is necessary to distin- F sin
#(F !F )cos M #F sin 
guish di!erent values of the #ight angle, because it varies     1
with the radial position. Thus,  is the helix angle at the #(F #F #F !F )sin M "0. (6)
   
barrel wall and M is the mean helix angle, which is
The torque balance is written as
approximated by the angle at half the depth of the chan-
nel. In Eq. (3), the volumetric throughput is de"ned D F cos
#DM ((F !F )sin M
exclusively in kinematic terms. The conveying angle
,   
which follows from a force and torque balance, introduc- !(F #F #F !F )cos M )!D F cos  "0, (7)
    1  1
es the friction coe$cients and the pressure gradient.
where the overbars denote the mean value, and the suf-
"xes S and B denote the values at the screw root and
2.2. The pressure proxle barrel wall, respectively. Thus DM and D represent the
1
mean diameter of the screw channel and the diameter of
The conveying angle is found from Eq. (3): the screw root, respectively. The mean value is approxi-
mated by the value at half the channel depth.
sin 

"arctan , (4) All normal forces, except for F , are de"ned in terms of

 sin  !cos  the pressure (which is assumed to be a function of z only,
where and therefore constant in the slice). For example,
F "pH dz . (8)



ND H(D !H) e 
" 1! . (5)
Q
(D !H)sin M An unbalanced force FH is introduced in the form
FH"F !F . Because of the curvature of the channel it
By maintaining the mass #ow rate constant and allowing  
is necessary to distinguish between a down channel in-
the volumetric #ow rate to vary with the density of the crement at the barrel wall dz , the corresponding in-
material, we may compute the conveying angle locally, crement at the screw root dz , and the average dz .
and thus include directly the compressibility of the 1
dz and dz are related to dz by
material. 1
If the pressure change over a certain length of the sin  sin 
dz "dz and dz "dz . (9)
extruder is known, the #ow rate in Eq. (3) can be useful sin M 1 sin 
1
only if the conveying angle can be determined indepen-
dently. To this e!ect Darnell and Mol set up a force and The frictional forces are proportional to the normal
torque balance over a slice of the plug. The slice is shown forces acting upon the surface under consideration. Thus
F , F , F and F are
in Fig. 3 along with the forces involved in the Darnell and    
Mol analysis. The F are the various normal and fric-
G F " p= dz ,

tional forces exerted upon the slice by the extruder and
neighbouring powder elements in the channel. F is the F " F " (pH dz #FH), (10)
  1  1
friction force exerted on the plug by the barrel wall.
F " F " pH dz ,
F , F and F are the friction forces from the two #ights
    1  1
and from the channel root. The other forces are normal F " p= dz ,
forces.  1 1 1
A force balance and a torque balance, both in the where = is the channel width. The  denote the friction
G
direction of the extruder axis, de"ne a system of two coe$cients between the plug and the extruder surfaces.
1938 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949

Auxiliary variables are de"ned as that the average pressure remains una!ected. The normal
forces on the active and passive #ights are now given by
A , = sin
#2H sin  #=  sin  , F "pH dz #FH and F "pH dz !FH, respectively,
 1 1 1  
A ,H=M sin M , with corresponding frictional forces F " F and
  1 
F " F . The auxiliary variables de"ned in Eq. (11)
B ,D =  cos
!2DM H cot M sin  (11)  1 
 1 are not changed by this intervention, but Eq. (12), is
!D =  cot  sin  , modi"ed slightly to give
1 1 1 1
B ,!DM H= M cos M 2 sin M # cos M
 K,DM 1 "DM tan(M #I ), (17)
2 cos M ! sin M
and 1

sin M # cos M where  "2 tan I .

1 1
K,DM "DM tan(M #), (12) If the modi"ed result given by Eq. (17) is temporarily
cos M ! sin M
1 &unwound', Eq. (16) is replaced by
where  "tan . The force and torque balances then
1 H" cos(#
)!(1#2) (18)
give the pressure gradient 1
dp A K!B which is correct to second order in , as opposed to "rst
"   p. (13)
dz B !A K order only in the Darnell and Mol model. Thus the
  modi"ed, fully wound result given in Eq. (17) shows the
correct asymptotic behaviour and is expected to be more
accurate than the original Darnell and Mol result given
2.3. An improved &Darnell and Mol' model in Eq. (12).
For compressible materials, the wall normal stresses
Weert and co-workers (Weert, 1998; Weert, Lawrence, are related to the principal longitudinal stress by the
Adams, & Briscoe, 2000) studied the simpli"ed problem parameter k"/(1!), where  is the Poisson ratio of
with rectilinear geometry obtained by unwinding the the material. In this case, the factor k appears on the
screw, and obtained a detailed asymptotic solution for right-hand side of Eq. (13) and the conveying angle
small values of the friction coe$cients . The pressure
evolves as the material density changes.
was found to grow exponentially along the channel as The asymptotic models (Weert et al., 2000) to which
p"p eX&IH (14) reference has been made above provide, in addition to
 a much more detailed picture of the stress "eld, a full
with three-dimensional solution for the internal deformations
within the extrudate. These asymptotic models are less
H" cos(#
)!(1#2) #O(), (15)
1 generally applicable than the current model, since they
where "H/= is the channel aspect ratio. The coe$- require additional constitutive information to relate the
cient H can be seen as the net friction coe$cient for the internal deformations to the stress "eld. In the present
extruder (Weert, 1998). paper we shall limit the discussion to the Darnell and
When the Darnell and Mol model is simpli"ed for the Mol model and our improved variant of it.
unwound geometry we "nd
H" cos(#
)!(1#2) !  sin(#
). (16)
1 1 3. Constitutive data
Clearly, the Darnell and Mol model does not comply
with Eq. (15) in the appropriate limit; the coe$cient at A quantitative evaluation of the models requires the
order  should be zero. An important structural objec- wall friction coe$cients, the Poisson ratio and the den-
tion to the Darnell and Mol model is that it assumes sity of the material as a function of the pressure. The
a constant (hydrostatic) pressure across the channel sup- density is measured directly, but the evaluation of the
plemented by an extra pushing force on the active #ight, friction coe$cients requires a more extensive analysis.
which does not seem to respect physical sense. The principal ancillary piece of equipment, adopted to
The fully wound Darnell and Mol model presented in obtain material data, was an INSTRON uniaxial compres-
Section 2.2 is now modi"ed as follows. The discontinuous sion cell. It was mounted in a 6022 10 kN tension-com-
pressure distribution is replaced by a linear pressure pression frame, and the load was limited to 9.5 kN. With
variation across the channel, which closely approximates a 13 mm diameter die this corresponds roughly to
the result obtained in the asymptotic model. A pushing 700 bar maximum applied stress, which is as high as one
force is thereby generated on the active #ight as before, would expect to meet in industrial extrusion applications.
but an identical force is subtracted at the passive #ight, so The pressure to which the powder was subjected in the
 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949
Fig. 4. Density as a function of the average pressure for a powder with
10% moisture. The data were collected using a 1 : 4 compact.
extrusion experiments did not exceed 350 bar. A separate
linear voltage displacement transducer was used to moni-
tor the displacement as a function of time.
 , (19)

  log(p /p )
The INSTRON bends under its own load. At high load

levels the e!ect becomes quite signi"cant. Therefore, the
load}displacement curves have to be corrected for the
machine compliance. The e!ect of the compliance correc-
tion is greater for samples of low aspect (or length-to-
diameter) ratio than for samples of high aspect ratio. In
the course of a single compaction test, therefore, the e!ect
increases with time, because the higher load increases the
absolute value of the compliance, while reducing the
sample aspect ratio.
The material used in this study was a low reducing
sugar potato starch powder (Master Foods, Norwich).
Due to the small size of the samples, the powder was
mixed manually with the required amount of water in
0.3 kg batches with a spatula for 15 min, and sieved to
break up agglomerates every 5 min. For each target as-
pect ratio, a sample was produced by weighing an
amount of powder on a Sartorius 2001 MP2 electronic
balance, based on an approximate density of 900 kg m\.
The exact density is unimportant at this stage, since the
test data permit it to be calculated directly from the
compacted volume. The sample was then carefully
poured into the die, con"ned by top and bottom punches
and transferred to the INSTRON.
3.1. Powder density
The density is a function of the pressure, as has been
illustrated in Fig. 4. At higher aspect ratios the stress
distribution is more non-uniform and the density vari-
ations within the compact gain in importance. Therefore,
the density has been calculated from 1 : 4 aspect ratio
compacts. The density of the powder can be described
within a 1.5% error margin over the whole pressure
1939
Fig. 5. The stress transmission ratio as a function of the mean stress for
three compacts of di!erent aspect ratios.
range by the "t


log(p/p )
( p)" !( ! ) tanh a

where the "tting parameter a is taken to be 2.73. The
pressure}density relation possibly depends on the punch
displacement rate, i.e. the powder response may have
a viscous component. However, the punch speed was set
at 5 mm min\, which is su$ciently slow for the elastop-
lastic components of the powder response to dominate
the viscous component.
3.2. Friction coezcient
It is quite di$cult to unequivocally retrieve the friction
coe$cients alone from the compression tests using the
Janssen}Walker model (Eq. (2)). Moreover, the surface
"nish of the screw extruder will be di!erent from that of
the die and therefore it would be inappropriate to at-
tempt to obtain anything beyond a good estimate for .
Fig. 5 shows the stress transmission ratio as a function of
the log of the pressure for compacts of three di!erent
aspect ratios. The initial scatter in Fig. 5 is partially due
to the low resolution of the stress transducers at low
loads and, arguably, partially due to particle rearrange-
ment within the die.
As the material is compressed towards its density pla-
teau, k will increase to the limiting value of the compac-
ted material (this is not necessarily unity). A graph of
!ln(R)D/4¸ as a measure of  kF as a function of the
U
average absolute pressure is shown in Fig. 6. The curves
follow an interesting trend. With increasing imposed
pressure,  kF initially remains nearly constant. This
U
may be attributed to the initial decrease of  compen-
U
sated by the increase of k. After a relatively long plateau,
the friction coe$cient rises quite sharply. Finally, the
combination decreases sharply at high pressure as
the friction decreases again. The di!erences between
1940 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949
Fig. 6. A plot of  kF as a function the mean stress for three compacts
U & Co. Ltd. (Manchester). The extruder was "tted with
of di!erent aspect ratios.
the three curves can be attributed to the increase of
F with the decrease of the aspect ratio.
3.3. Poisson ratio
It is a common misconception that the Poisson ratio of
a powder tends to 0.5 as the material is more fully
compressed. In fact, for an elastic body, the Poisson ratio
expresses the compressibility of the material compared
with its resistance against a shearing deformation:
1 3K!2
corresponds roughly to k"0.7. Of course, this would
have signi"cance only in the solids conveying zone of the
extruder; upstream the powder is too &#u!y' to transmit
any stress of signi"cance, and the experiments will show
that the models break down outside the compaction
regime.
4. Extrusion experiments
A series of experiments was undertaken on a full-scale
extruder in order to assess the value of the models. This
section presents the experimental procedures under
which the data were acquired.
A single-screw extruder was provided by Francis Shaw
a high-resolution, high-frequency data acquisition sys-
tem for continuous barrel-wall pressure reading. The
characteristics and dimensions of the extruder are in-
dicated in Fig. 7. The pressure transducers were placed at
the high-pressure end of the screw, corresponding to the
compressed length, i.e. positions 1}3. The screw has con-
stant pitch 60 mm and depth 18 mm. The dimensions are
given in mm, but the drawing is not to scale; especially
the #ight thickness has been exaggerated. Also, the real
screw has 13.33 turns. The helix angle follows from
1
" , (20)
2 3K#
where
represents the shear modulus, and K is the bulk
modulus de"ned by


1 1 <
"! . (21)
K < p
2
For instance, steel, which is intuitively felt to be rather
less compressible than a billet of stamped potato starch,
has a Poisson ratio of 0.3, whereas the Poisson ratio of
water is 0.5 by virtue of its negligible shear modulus.
It is also clear that uniaxial compression of a powder
may induce material anisotropy, so that the elastic be-
haviour may not even be isotropic. Since no accurate
experimental means of measuring the Poisson ratio was
available, an approximate value used by ceramic powder
engineers was adopted. Although the analyses of the
models of the previous sections have shown that this is
quite a severe defect (a!ecting the exponent of the pres-
sure rise), as in the case of the friction coe$cients, this
does not diminish the value of the theoretical predictions.
Indeed, the models may be calibrated with the experi-
mental data from the screw extruder itself.
We assume the Poisson ratio to be a constant 0.4,
which by
k die aperture. During the pressure pro"le data acquisition,
"
1#k
 "arctan "17339. (23)


The material used was the starch powder described in
Section 3 mixed with 10% water by weight. Fifteen
kilogram batches were mixed with water at room temper-
ature for 15 min in a 25l Beken counter-rotating high-
shear planetary mixer. The water used to produce the
material was taken from the mains supply. The material
was discharged manually from the mixer into 13l feeder
containers. Mass loss by evaporation was measured and
found to be very small since each batch was exposed to
air for less than one hour, while the material temperature
was not signi"cantly a!ected by the mixing.
The extruder was operated initially at 3 rpm with
a small amount of water to lubricate the #ights. Then the
powder was #ood-fed to avoid any gaps in the powder
feed. This is the usual mode of operation in powder screw
extrusion. Furthermore, the actual compression of the
material occurs in the last few turns of the screw, so that
any #uctuations in the feed are attenuated along the
screw. The extruder was left running at constant rota-
tional speed until steady state was reached, as established
by monitoring of the pressure readings (the most accu-
rate information obtained from the system). The system
was operated at di!erent screw speeds and back pres-
sures. The back pressure was varied by changing the exit
(22)
a throughput measurement was made by collecting the
 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949 1941

Fig. 7. Schematic representation of the screw. Dimensions in mm.

Table 1
Operating conditions of the extrusion runs. The pressures p , p and p are the mean pressures measured at locations 1, 2 and 3 in Fig. 7. ¸ is the
  
compacted length in screw turns

Run number N (rev min\) p (bar) p (bar) p (bar) ¸ (turns) m (kg min\)
  
1 1.5 48 21 2.5 2.5 0.11
2 3 229 196 166 6.5 0.19
3 5 211 171 122 6.0 0.30
4 1.5 52 26 3 3.0 0.11
5 3 71 43 6 4.0 0.18
6 5 93 71 15 4.0 0.38

quantity of extrudate produced in a 60 s period, and
weighing it.
After the operation, the exit die was removed and the
extruder was #ushed with water again to remove any
perishable organics, dried and treated against corrosion.
Since, however, the screw and the barrel sections are
made of stainless steel, no treatment was given to the
parts exposed to the pastes and powders which would
otherwise have a!ected the surface "nish and the ex-
truder characteristics.
4.1. Experimental data
The extruder was operated under a series of di!erent
conditions, which are indicated in Table 1, which lists the
mean pressures recorded at the three transducers p , p
 
and p (see Fig. 7), the compacted length ¸ and the

throughput m
for three di!erent screw speeds N. The
back pressure p was varied by manually changing the

die aperture, but the screw speed also has an in#uence
upon the back pressure. In the absence of a reliable back
pressure control system, the back pressure is to be con-
sidered as a process response rather than as an opera-
tional variable. The compacted lengths were estimated by
carefully opening the extruder after the experiment (the
extruder barrel consists of two hydraulically actuated
half-shells which open without signi"cantly disturbing
the material in the screw channel), and measuring the
length of completely "lled channel. Since, in practice, the
transition from the powder feed zone to the conveying
zone is gradual and shows some variation in time, the
number of screw turns ($0.25) is as accurate a measure
of the compacted length as the experimental procedure
allows.
Figs. 8}10 show the wall pressure #uctuations at posi-
tions 1, 2 and 3 speci"ed in Fig. 7 as a function of time for
the runs displayed in bold typeface in Table 1. According
to the theory (the equations describe steady state) the
screw speed ought to have a linear e!ect upon the
throughput, as long as the pressure rise and compacted
length are constant. However, the material response will
have a viscous component, which will have a measurable
e!ect upon the back pressure and hence the throughput
for a "xed exit constriction.
Fig. 10 shows data gathered when the channel was not
completely "lled, which occurs for lower back pressure
and a shorter compacted length in the extruder. It can be
seen that the channel "lls up along the screw until the
conditions are satis"ed for the pressure to build up;
the transducer nearest the exit records a signal which is
quite similar to those of the previous two "gures for
which the channel was "lled. In this case, where the stress
transducers straddle the transition from the compacted
length to the feed zone, the compacted length is found
with greater accuracy from the wall stress measurements
than from inspection of the opened extruder.
Fig. 11 shows the nature of the compacted length
of the plug. Towards the left, the material exhibits
1942 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949
Fig. 8. Wall pressure signals at 5 rpm.
Fig. 9. Wall pressure signals at 3 rpm.
Fig. 10. Wall pressure signals at 1.5 rpm. The pro"les of the feed and
middle transducers (2 and 3) are qualitatively di!erent from the third
pro"le. This is due to incomplete channel "ll, and indicates the
transition from the feed zone to the conveying zone.
discontinuities, and this is where the compacted length
begins. The fractured surface of the plug in the right
screw turn is due to relaxation swelling, and does not
indicate incomplete channel "ll.
Fig. 11. The compacted length of the plug gradually declines into
the regime of unconsolidated solids conveying of the feed zone. The
transition is indicated by the appearance of voids in the plug. The
material is conveyed from left to right.
4.2. Powder deterioration
The dissipation of energy in frictional heat is propor-
tional to the pressure and screw speed. In the absence of
cooling, the plug may be exposed to such high temper-
atures and pressures towards the exit die, that the starch
forms a thermoplastic melt. Inspection of the plug, how-
ever, has revealed that this is limited to the outermost
layers of the plug, emphasising the responsibility of fric-
tional processes as opposed to internal shearing deforma-
tions for the dissipation of mechanical energy.
The degraded exterior of the plug may be recognised
in Fig. 12 by its darker colour. The plug depicted here
has been subjected to uncooled extrusion at 20 rpm,
with a back pressure in excess of 300 bar, and a corre-
sponding throughput of 0.23 kg min\. The fact that the
back pressure and the throughput are much lower than
would be expected for such high revolution speeds re-
#ects the di!erent nature of the wall boundary conditions
in the high-pressure zone. The material is thought to slip
much more freely around the barrel, while the low
throughput exposes it to the high temperatures of the
barrel for a longer time, so that the material cooks on
the interface. In addition, a black patina was noted
on the screw and barrel surfaces, indicating the encrusta-
tion of carbonised organic material in the surface rough-
ness interstices.
As can be inferred from Fig. 12, the temperature pro"le
follows a trend similar to that of the pressure, but as
temperature e!ects become more important, the assump-
tions of the models gradually lose their validity.
The light circle visible at the top of the plug in Fig. 12 is
the trace of the stress transducer head. Even though the
transducers are mounted #ush with the surface of the
barrel, a surface irregularity is inevitable since the barrel
is curved and the transducer heads are not. The "nite size
 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949
Fig. 12. A photograph showing that under conditions of excessive
pressure and temperatures in uncooled extrusion, the starch powder
gelatinises. This phenomenon is con"ned to the outermost regions of
the plug.
of the transducer head is accounted for in the analysis
that follows.
5. Data analysis
In the current engineering context, only those predic-
tions of the mathematical models which can be subjected
to a direct comparison with experimental data are useful.
In practice this is su$cient for a "rst-order design of
a processing engine such as a single-screw extruder. The
measurements made were the compacted length and the
throughput for a range of revolution speeds and back
pressures, and the wall normal stress as a function of
time. In this section, these quantitative data are analysed
and compared with results from the model.
5.1. Pressure rise
To minimise the error, the time average of the pressure
signal has been considered to represent the channel
centre line pressure. Since each pressure transducer pro-
vides only one such time average, each experiment yields
three points along the pressure pro"le. Since an exponen-
tial pro"le may be "tted exactly to two points, it is rather
di$cult to assess the value of the data in this way.
However, an auxiliary result of this analysis is the length
of the compacted zone, which will be seen to correspond
quite reasonably to the experimentally measured value.
This will be discussed in Section 5.3.
A pressure rise is considered of the form
p(z)"p eIHX\X &, (24)

where p represents the average pressure at the reference
 relationship
point z"z . This is in accordance with the original and

modi"ed Darnell and Mol models. Now, by introducing
1943
z "¸!z, z is measured backwards, and the reference
point is shifted to the exit of the extruder, so that
p(z)"p e\IHX &. (25)
The exit transducer is taken to be the reference point
(z , p ), the middle transducer is identi"ed by (z , p ) and
   
the feed transducer by (z , p ). Then from the above
 
expression for the pressure,
p z
ln G "!(i!1)H , (26)
p H
where z"45 mm/sin 17.653 denotes the down-channel
distance between the transducers (Fig. 7). Fig. 13 shows
ln p for the three transducers (i"1, 2, 3), where smooth
G
interpolation curves (splines) have been drawn to accom-
modate the three pressure measurements. The six curves
correspond to the data of Table 1.
It appears that the pressure does not rise exponentially
over the entire compacted length; this was already evi-
dent in Figs. 8 and 9 where the successive transducers
record decreasing slopes on the ascending part of the
curves, whereas an exponential pro"le would show an
increase in the slopes. This can be attributed to the fact
that the friction coe$cient is not a constant, but de-
creases at high pressure in the fashion described in Sec-
tion 3.2. This matter will be dealt with further in the next
section.
5.2. Friction coezcients
The friction coe$cients are not solely responsible for
the shape and magnitude of the pressure rise: the com-
pressibility, which a!ects the conveying angle, is an addi-
tional parameter that determines the pressure gradient.
However, Eq. (15) demonstrates that since the conveying
angle has a very small value in the experiments
(13(
(23), the compressibility of the material has
a much smaller e!ect on the overall pressure pro"le than
do the friction coe$cients. Fig. 14 shows the slope of the
curves of Fig. 13, which represents an approximation of
H as a function of the pressure (Eq. (26)).
The pressure pro"le remains valid in a di!erential
sense in the form
dp 1
"!pH(p) (27)
dz H
so that, upon introduction of the auxiliary variable
q"ln p/p ,

1 1
dq"! dz . (28)
H(q) H
The curves in Fig. 14 suggest that the pressure depend-
ence of H may be crudely approximated by a linear
H"A!Bq.
1944 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949

Fig. 13. The pressure as a function of down-channel position. The three Fig. 15. The compacted length as a function of the generated back
points on each curve are the measured values; the curves themselves are pressure. The points are the experimentally estimated values; the curve
splines. The labels on the curves correspond to the runs listed in Table 1. follows Eq. (31).

coe$cient cannot take negative values. This would sug-

gest a more careful "t, but the linear approximation is
probably adequate, given the scarcity and scatter of the
experimental data.

5.3. Compacted length

The compacted length follows from Eq. (30) with

p"p at z"¸:


Fig. 14. Pressure exponent H as a function of the pressure. The curves
are derived from the splines of Fig. 13. The labels on the curves
correspond to the runs listed in Table 1. The straight line is the
approximation discussed in the text.
Then Eq. (28) is integrated to give
1 z
ln(A!Bq)" #C,
B H
C is found from the conditions at the exit of the extruder,
and the pressure pro"le is
p A p
ln " (1!e X &)#ln e X &. (30)
p B p
 
It should be noted here that the conveying angle
does
not appear in any of these expressions. This may account
for the di!erences between the curves in Fig. 14, which
otherwise, and disregarding experimental scatter, should
be expected to collapse to a single curve. Furthermore,
a linear relationship does justice neither to the data of
Fig. 14, nor to the physical requirement that the friction


H B p
¸"! ln 1! ln . (31)
B A p

This analysis is summarised in Fig. 15 showing a curve of
the compacted length as a function of the back pressure.
From Fig. 14 we "nd roughly A+0.35. The value of B is
limited by Eq. (31), which, in e!ect, gives an upper bound
to the pressure generating capacity of the extruder. We
give B a value of 95% of its theoretical maximum,
B+0.0637. It should be emphasised that the experi-
mental value of the compacted length stems from rather
imprecise measurements, and that the calculated values
are quite sensitive to the estimate of the friction coe$c-
(29)
ient. In view of these problems, the model is seen to yield
a reasonable estimate of the compacted length.
5.4. Pressure gauge signal
The data from the pressure transducers (Figs. 8 and 9)
were analysed by extracting the data for individual rota-
tions of the screw and averaging the results. The signal
was also scaled by the pressure at the centre of the
channel p . The recorded signal is in fact
, but it is
A PP
easily converted to the pressure by the approximation
3 7

+ p or p+
. (32)
PP 1# 6 PP
 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949
Fig. 16. The pressure pro"les corresponding to a screw velocity of
5 rpm, a back pressure of 211 bar, a throughput of 0.30 kg min\ and
a compacted length of ca. 6 turns corresponding to 1.2 m. The exit,
middle, and feed transducers correspond to positions 1, 2 and 3 in Fig.
7. p is the pressure at the centre of the channel. Each "gure displays
A
repeated signals from the transducers. The solid line represents the
smoothed signal.
Some results have been shown in Figs. 16 and 17,
displaying the dimensionless pressure p/p as a function
A
of dimensionless time t/¹ (¹ is the period of revolution of
the screw). The pro"le is rather insensitive to the revol-
ution speed; Fig. 17 shows the pro"les for 3 rpm.
1945
Fig. 17. The pressure pro"les corresponding to a screw velocity of
3 rpm, a back pressure of 229 bar, a throughput of 0.19 kg min\ and
a compacted length of ca. 6.5 turns.
The signal from a wall-mounted pressure gauge has
been analysed according to the modi"ed Darnell and
Mol model. Although the overall pressure rise could have
been compared with the original Darnell and Mol analy-
sis, the present data require the modi"cation discussed in
Section 2.3; in this context, the essential shortcoming of
the Darnell and Mol model is that it does not allow for
cross-channel pressure variation.
In carrying out this comparison, we can no longer
consider a net friction coe$cient H only, but need to
distinguish the individual friction coe$cients  and  ,
1
which change with the pressure in such a fashion as to
1946 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949

allow H to follow the trend indicated in Fig. 14. For the

&fully wound' screw it is not easy to derive a symbolic
expression corresponding to Eq. (18); for our geometrical
parameters the appropriate form is approximately
H+ [(1.4!0.31 )cos
!(0.43#0.48 )sin
]
1 1
! (0.43#0.080 ). (33)
1 1
For the indicative purposes of this study, we may take the
conveying angle to be small, and the above expression
reduces to
H+ (1.4!0.31 )! (0.43#0.080 ). (34) Fig. 18. Comparison between experimental data (dotted) and model
1 1 1 predictions (solid line) for the pressure pro"le as read by a wall-
Note that the quadratic terms in Eqs. (33) and (34) are mounted pressure transducer.
a result of winding up the screw and would disappear if
the screw was unwound, as in Eq. (18). Since for the small
friction coe$cients we expect to encounter in practice,
the contribution of the quadratic terms in these expres-
sions will be small, we assume that the pressure depend-
ences of  and  are the same as that of H, and that the
1
ratio of the friction coe$cients remains constant along
the extruder channel. This yields
 / +0.6 (35)
1
and at the beginning of the compacted length,  +0.34.
The calculated pressure trace is shown in Fig. 18, along
with experimental data from Fig. 17. This pro"le has
been obtained with the assumption of a linear pressure
drop over the #ight, and by averaging the signal over
a distance equivalent to the face of a pressure transducer
of "nite dimensions, which has a smoothing e!ect on
the signal. This is most noticeable at the #ight-plug Fig. 19. Experimental data plotted with the predicted performance
curve. The scaled variables are de"ned in the text.
transitions.

5.5. Throughput current analytical approach provides su$cient predictive

The dimensionless volumetric throughput is given by
Q mental veri"cation of such computational methods.
QI " (36)
HD (D !H)
with the dimensionless global pressure rise given by
H p
p " ln . (37)
¸ p

Fig. 19 shows the performance curve for the extruder
under consideration relating these two quantities as com-
puted using the modi"ed Darnell and Mol model. The
friction coe$cient ratio  / +0.6 of Eq. (35) has been
1 "  "
used in conjunction with the experimentally measured
compacted lengths. The "gure also includes the experi-
mental data. Although it is not obvious from the "gure,
these data cover a large range of operational conditions
(see Table 1). The model is seen to provide a reasonable
prediction of the measured quantities in spite of the
relative inaccuracy of the data, especially of the com-
pacted length. This supports the contention that the
capacity compared to more elaborate computational
methods. Similar limitations would apply to the experi-
Moreover, these methods fail to provide the insight into
the extrusion process which is speci"c to analytical
methods.
5.6. Extruder performance optimisation
The mechanical e$ciency  of the extruder can be
expressed as
P Qp
, (38)
P 

where the useful work per unit time, P , is compared

with the power requirement for rotating the screw in the
barrel, P , which follows from the required torque, ,

and the angular velocity, . We wish to express the
e$ciency as a function of the dimensionless pressure rise,
p , and need to rewrite the above expression accordingly.
 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949 1947

extruder. These experiments were rather di$cult so the

data gathered are somewhat limited and inevitably sub-
ject to measurement error. Nevertheless, the data, to-
gether with interpretative models provide some useful
insight into the operation and performance of the ex-
truder for this class of materials.
The principal observation regarding the extrusion of
powders is that the back pressure is the single most
important parameter of the system: the material pressure
follows an exponential trend towards this back pressure,
such that the length of the compacted zone is only su$-
cient to develop this pressure. The upstream remainder of
the screw serves to convey the material towards the
pressurised zone and, as such, may be considered as
redundant in terms of the present analysis. Its role lies in
absorbing irregularities in the system, such as feed dis-
Fig. 20. Mechanical e$ciency as a function of the pressure rise for #ight continuities, pressure #uctuations or drift of the interface
angles from 15 to 203.
properties. This is a good reason to consider the back
pressure as the reference pressure in the models, and to
measure the down-channel coordinate backwards from
The torque follows from the exit.
The model described in this paper is not more complic-


D = *
"p  cos
eIHX & dz ated than that developed by Darnell and Mol, but it is
 2
 demonstrably more accurate. When the fully wound
D = eIH*&!1 models are unwound the revised model is shown to
"p  D cos
. (39) match an asymptotic solution up to second order, one
 2 
order higher than the Darnell and Mol solution. The
Then Darnell and Mol model lacks symmetry in the cross-
channel pressure pro"le and leads to spurious quadratic
2QI H(D !H) p !p
"  . (40) terms in the friction. The fact that the pressure pro"le is
 = cos
p (eIH*&!1) exponential emphasises the importance of this di!erence.

From the de"nition of p we derive Another reason to model the extruder backwards is
that the models break down upstream of the compacted
p !p length, as exempli"ed by the experimental data. The
 "e*&N !1, (41)
p principal reason is that the channel is not completely

"lled: there is a gap between the passive #ight and the
but since the channel width depends upon the #ight angle material (Fig. 1). In addition, the assumption of continu-
as = "
D sin  , the mechanical e$ciency may be ity is no longer satis"ed within the "lled portion of the
written compactly in the form channel: the material is #u!y and contains many holes
2(D !H) p QI and discontinuities.
" , (42) It is interesting to note that due to this choice, which

D sin  cos

by the above considerations is natural rather than arbit-
where the factor QI is taken to be a function of p . The rary, we have used two systems (the die and the screw)
e$ciency depends on the geometry, the operational vari- which are both modelled with the applied pressure at the
ables and the friction coe$cients. This relationship incor- reference point, and the analyses are used mainly to
porates the available factors that may be adjusted to calculate the decay of the in#uence of the reference pres-
optimise extruder design and operation in terms of the sure. The apparent di!erence between traction-arrested
mechanical e$ciency. A graph of the mechanical e$- and traction-induced #ow vanishes in the expressions for
ciency as a function of the dimensionless pressure rise is this pressure decay, which in both cases are essentially
shown in Fig. 20. exponential. The similarity between the two con"gura-
tions relies on the stress state being nearly uniaxial in
both situations, which is true if the friction coe$cients
6. Conclusions are not too large.
The experiments have highlighted a perhaps even more
Experimental data have been collected for the extru- important feature of the system: the applicability of the
sion of starch powder using an instrumented single-screw model is determined mainly by the accuracy of the
1948 X. Weert et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 56 (2001) 1933}1949

friction coe$cients, and these are a function of the pres- v relative velocity, m s\
sure. Therefore, the friction coe$cients vary along the = channel width, m
channel of the extruder. The principal consequence for z coordinate along the screw channel, m
the model presented in this paper is that it retains its z coordinate measured backwards along the
validity in a di!erential sense (cf. Eq. (27)). This is sub- screw channel, m
stantiated by the continuous pressure measurements,
which record the pressure variation over a relatively Greek letters
small down-channel length, and with which the model
predictions were shown to be in good accord. In real  channel aspect ratio
systems, the friction coe$cients may vary strongly with  mechanical e$ciency
pressure. In the simplest case, chosen here, this can lead  torque, N m
to a doubly exponential pressure rise, as seen in Eq. (30).
shear modulus, N m\
It has been demonstrated that the modi"ed model  #ight or helix angle
serves its purpose. Given a good estimate of the material  kinematic quantity used to determine

and interface properties, it permits a quantitative predic-  arctan 
1
tion of the e!ect of the geometrical parameters in the I arctan( /2)
1
design of an extruder, and it gives the compacted length  Coulomb friction coe$cient
G
as a lower limit for the projected screw length. The H net friction coe$cient
material and interface properties will be derived most  Poisson ratio
reliably from screw extrusion experiments such as those powder density, kg m\
described in this paper, but if no such data are available,
applied stress, N m\
?
one can resort to the more cumbersome and, especially
stress component, N m\
GH
for the interface properties, arguably less reliable route of
conveying angle
obtaining them in classical rheometric equipment.  angular velocity, s\

Notation
Acknowledgements
A, B parameters in linear/log "t for friction coe$c-
ient The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions
A ,B auxiliary variables in Darnell and Mol model, of Professor Peter Lillford from Unilever and of
G G Dr. Christina Goodacre of the DTI, whose "nancial
m, m, m
D compaction die inner diameter, m support has been instrumental in bringing this work to
D barrel inner diameter, m fruition. The additional funding from Unilever Port Sun-
e #ight thickness, m light is also gratefully acknowledged. In addition, they
F Walker correction parameter would like to thank Dr. Andrew Smith (IFR), Mrs. Ruth
F force in the extruder equilibrium equations, N Janes (Unilever) for their help, Chris Brown (Francis
G Shaw) for the screw extruder; Dan Parsonage and Graem
FH unbalanced force in the Darnell and Mol
model, N Cor"eld from Imperial College for their many contribu-
H channel height, m tions to the experimental programme in terms of
k ratio of radial and axial normal stresses precious time, relentless e!ort and valuable ideas.
K bulk modulus, N m\
K parameter in Darnell and Mol pressure model
¸ compacted length (in both extrusion and References
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