Research Article

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

2019, Vol. 11(1) 1–13
Ó The Author(s) 2019
Fluid transportation and heat transfer DOI: 10.1177/1687814018813068
journals.sagepub.com/home/ade
analysis of PP/TiO2 nanocomposites in
an internal mixer

XZ Zhu , J Liu and DP Sun

Abstract
The internal mixer is an important devise for processing the polymer nanocomposites acting as a chemical reactor. In
this article, based on the computational fluid dynamics method, the fluid transportation and heat transfer analysis of sol–
gel reaction processing for Polypropylene (PP)/TiO2 nanocomposites in the internal batch mixers with single-winged and
two-winged Cam rotors were simulated. First, the Lagrangian coherent structure analysis was used to understand the
fluid transport properties in the mixers. Then the effect of rotational speeds (ratios) and barrel temperatures on the
heat transfer characteristics in the mixers with different rotors was analyzed. Also, the changes of viscous heating and
torques of rotors with different thermal conditions in the mixers were discussed. Especially, the relationship between
the fluid transportation and heat transfer characteristics was explored. The results show that a big rotor speed ratio can
induce great fluid transportation in the left and right mixer chambers based on the Lagrangian coherent structure analy-
sis, and the fluid near the horseshoe map has great folding effect and temperature magnitude. The viscous dissipation,
viscous heat generation, and rotor torques in the mixers increase with increasing the rotational speeds and decrease
with increasing the barrel temperatures. The mixer with two-winged rotors has higher average temperature, viscous dis-
sipation, viscous heat generation and the torques of rotors values of reactive fluid than that with single-winged rotors.

Keywords
Polypropylene (PP)/TiO2 nanocomposites, Lagrangian coherent structure, heat transfer analysis, sol–gel reaction, internal
mixer

Date received: 21 January 2018; accepted: 22 October 2018

Handling Editor: Ishak Hashim

Introduction mixers, which controls the situ sol–gel reaction to deter-

The internal mixer with asynchronous rotors is an impor-
tant equipment of polymer industry due to its high mix-
ing efficiency. Recently, the internal rotating mixers have
been utilized to process the polymer nanocomposites act-
ing as a batch chemical reactor, typically for processing
Polypropylene (PP)/TiO2 nanocomposites.1–3 The PP/
TiO2 nanocomposites are often processed using in situ
sol–gel reaction method into the internal mixer and have
more excellent material properties than the PP polymer,
for example, mechanical properties, flame retardance,
and thermal stability.4–6 Meanwhile, the rotor geometric
has great influence on the mixing efficiency in the internal
mine the quality of nanocomposites.
As is known to us, the reactive extrusion in the inter-
nal mixer is a complicated process controlled by many
variates. Meanwhile, because the viscous fluid is highly
non-isothermal induced by heat transfer, viscous
School of Mechanical Engineering, Liaoning Shihua University, Fushun,
China
Corresponding author:
XZ Zhu, School of Mechanical Engineering, Liaoning Shihua University,
Fushun 113001, Liaoning, China.
Email: xzzhu@126.com

Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without
further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/
open-access-at-sage).
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
dissipation, and chemical reactions, the temperature
distribution in the mixer is an important factor to
determine the reactive processing and product quality.
For example, when the temperature distributions in the
mixer increase, the rate of reaction increases,7 and the
size range of formation particles decreases.8 Especially,
comparison with traditional polymer processing in twin
screw extruders, the nanocomposites processing in the
mixer required higher shears rate and longer residence
time distributions to obtain nanoscale dispersion.9
Therefore, understanding the temperature distribution
rules in the internal mixer is important to carefully con-
trol rates of ongoing chemical reactions.
With the recent advances in computational fluid
dynamics, the finite element method (FEM) has been a
useful tool to better understand the temperature distri-
bution in complex geometries. Lots of researchers
focused on the heat transfer of nonreactive polymer
processing in the mixer using two-dimensional (2D) or
three-dimensional (3D) non-isothermal models.10–15
Typically, Campanelli et al.13 developed kinetic, ther-
modynamic, and rheological equations to calculate
batch temperature, torque, and power consumption in
an internal mixer. Ishikawa et al.14 developed a 3D
steady-state non-isothermal models to analyze the tem-
perature profiles in a nonintermeshing continuous
mixer using the FEM. Bai et al.9 established a transient
and non-isothermal model to simulate the heat transfer
process in an internal mixer using commercial software,
Polyflow. The temperature distribution and the heat
transfer between polymer melt and mixer wall were
obtained. Salahudeen et al.15 optimized the rotor speed
according to stretching, efficiency, and viscous heating
in an internal mixer with Cam rotor using 2D finite ele-
ment modeling. The temparature rise between the Cam
rotor edge and mixer wall was analyzed.
The analysis of reaction process in the internal
mixer is very complicated due to the nonlinear and
couple effect of flow-heat transfer-reaction.
Comparison with nonreactive polymer processing, the
thermal analysis researches of reactive polymer inside
the internal batch mixer are relatively limited. Zhou
et al.16 used Polyflow code to simulate the
Polyethylene (PE) branching reaction in a Haake
mixer using non-isothermal model, but the tempera-
ture information of the reactive system in the mixer was
not given. Considering the viscous dissipation, Adragna
et al.7 established the closed equations of the flow,
mass, energy, and momentum for polymer flowing in
an internal mixer. The velocity and torque profiles con-
sidering heat transfer with time evolution were dis-
cussed. On the other hand, for the reaction in the mixer,
most studies focused on the experiment product perfor-
mance by experimental techniques.17–20 More recently,
Zhu and Sun21 studied the influences of chaotic flow
fields induced by rotor speed ratios on the local and
overall reactive rates in the mixer with Haake rotors.
However, the information of complex reactive tempera-
tures dominated by the fluid transportation and mixing
efficiency in the internal mixers is relatively absent.
Recently, Lagrangian coherent structure (LCS) was
proposed to identify the chaotic manifold in a dynamic
system of fluid flow.22–24 The LCS provides a strong
tool to analyze the potential chaotic mixing mechan-
ism. The ridges of the finite-time Lyapunov exponent
(FTLE) present the most stretching and repelling struc-
tures, which are called LCS. Parts of applications stud-
ied the mixing and transport process in the internal
mixers using the FTLE and LCS.25–27 Robinson and
Cleary26 extracted the manifold structures from the for-
ward and backward FTLEs with a rational integration
time, and the mixing characteristics in different condi-
tions were discussed using the LCS. Moreover, they
used the same method to identify and visualize the 3D
manifold intersections in a helical ribbon mixer.27 Most
studies focused the LCS applications in other subjects,
such as the vortex pinch-off,28 atmosphere,29 ocean,30
biology,31 and electromagnetic.32 However, the studies
using the LCS to analyze the time-varying flow consid-
ering the effect of moving parts and fluid temperature
are relatively limited.
In this study, based on the Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD) method, the fluid transportation and
heat transfer analysis of sol–gel reaction for PP/TiO2
nanocomposites are employed in the internal mixers
with single-winged and two-winged Cam rotors, respec-
tively. Based on the LCS analysis, the fluid transporta-
tion and transient heat transfer profiles in the reaction
procession of preparing PP/TiO2 nanocomposites are
simulated in the internal mixers with two types of Cam
rotors. Especially, some relationship between the fluid
transportation and heat transfer characteristics is
employed. Moreover, the influences of rotor speed
ratios and barrel temperatures on the heat transfer
characteristics in the internal mixers are investigated.
Specially, the changing rules of viscous heating and tor-
ques of rotors with different thermal conditions in the
mixers are discussed.
Methods and materials
Mathematical modeling
The hydrolysis–condensation reactions of titanium alk-
oxides with sol–gel method in the internal mixer obey
the overall generalized reaction as follows1
TiðORÞ4 + 2H2 O TiO2 + 4ROH ð1Þ
To study above reactive flow in the internal mixers
with different rotors, we adopt some assumptions as
follows: (1) the flow in the mixer is non-Newtonian and
laminar flow; (2) the internal mixer is fully filled with
Zhu et al. 3

nanocomposite fluid; (3) the conditions of incompressi- Table 1. The key data of the material properties.
ble and non-slip of surfaces are considered.
The continuity and momentum equations are respec- Values
tively expressed in equations (2) and (3) as follows33 Properties of polypropylene melt
Zero shear viscosity, h0 3500 Pa s
r  v=0 ð2Þ Characteristic time, l 0.05 s
  Yasuda parameter, a 0.35
∂v Power-law index, m 0.27
r + v  rv = rp + hr2 v + rg ð3Þ Reference temperature, Tr 493 K
∂t
Activation energy for flow, E 46 kJ mol21
where v denotes the velocity vector; p, r, t, and h Density, r 900 kg m23
Reaction parameters
denote the pressure, density, time, and shear viscosity, Gas constant, R 8.314 J mole21 K21
respectively. Precursor concentration, k 0.0102 s21
The energy conservation obeys the following Activation energy for reaction, Ea 65 KJ mol21
equation34 Precursor concentration ½Ti(OR)4  10 wt%

∂T
rCp + rCp v  rT = t:rv + r  r  ðkrT Þ ð4Þ
∂t
Table 2. The material properties at different temperatures for
where T denotes the absolute temperature, Cp denotes the 10 wt% precursor concentrations.
heat capacity, r denotes the heat source, k denotes the
kinetic constant, krT denotes the heat flux,t is the [Ti(OR)4] k (s21) k (s21) k (s21) h0
stress tensor, the form of t:rv denotes the viscous heat- wt% 453 K 493 K 523 K (Pa s)
ing, and rv is the velocity gradient tensor.
10 wt% 0.0017 0.0102 0.0152 3500
The stress tensor in equation (7) is written as follows

t = 2hðg,
_ T ÞD ð5Þ
where ½Ti(OR)4  denotes the inorganic precursor con-
in which D denotes the deformation tensor rate; h centration, h0 prec denotes the zero-shear viscosity of
denotes the shear viscosity; g_ denotes the effective the inorganic precursor, and h0 pp denotes the zero-
shear rate and can be expressed as shear viscosity of PP matrix. According to equation
(12), the zero-shear viscosity of the nanocomposite fluid
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi considering 10 wt% precursors is listed in Table 2.35
g_ = 2 ðD : D Þ ð6Þ
The conversion rate of sol–gel process can be defined
The form of the deformation tensor rate is defined as as
 
1h i Ka % = 1  ½Ti(OR)4 =½Ti(OR)4 initial % ð10Þ
D= Dv + ðDvÞT ð7Þ
2
where Ka denotes conversion rate; ½Ti(OR)4 initial
In this study, the viscosity of the material is assumed denotes the initial inorganic precursor concentration.
to be equal to the PP matrix. The PP viscosity is The conversion rate of sol–gel process can be con-
described as Carreau–Yasuda and Arrhenius laws35,36 trolled by many variables, such as the fluid transport,
  temperature, mixing, and diffusion.
m1 E 1 1 Based on the Arrhenius law, the kinetic constant, k,
_ T )a 
a
h = h0 ½1 + (lgH exp (  ) ð8Þ
R T Tr for this reaction is defined as
where h0 , l, a, and m denote the zero-shear viscosity,  
Ea
characteristic time, Yasuda parameter, and power-law k = k0 exp  ð11Þ
RT
index, respectively. E, R, and Tr denote the activation
energy, gas constant, and reference temperature, respec- where k0 , Ea , and R denote the pre-exponential factor,
tively. The key data of the material properties of the activation energy for reaction, and gas constant. In this
simulations are listed in Table 1.35 work, considering 10 wt% precursor concentrations of
After the inorganic precursor entering the molten Ti(OR)4 , the data of the kinetic constant at 453 K, 493
PP matrix, considering the effect of dilution on the PP K and 523 K are described in Table 2.
matrix, the zero-shear viscosity h0 of nanocomposite According to the rate of strain tensor, the viscous
fluid obeys the following mixing law35 dissipation, Qg , in the mixer can be written as

h0 = h0 prec ½Ti(OR)4  + h0 pp ð1  ½Ti(OR)4 Þ ð9Þ Qg = hðD:DÞ ð12Þ

4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Table 3. Boundary conditions in the simulations.

Rotational speed ratio Left rotor: right rotor

3:1; 3:2; 3:3
Rotational speed O Rotational speed 9:6 r/min; 15:10 r/min;
30:20 r/min
Barrel temperature Initial temperature values
TW1 = 473 K; TW2 = 493 K; TW3 = 523 K

The torque acting on one rotor is defined as

ð
G= ½r0 3 ðt  nÞ  AdS ð13Þ
s

where r0 denotes the position vector force from arm; n

denotes the unit vector normal to the rotating part;
A denotes the unit vector parallel to the rotational axis.
S denotes the surface area of the rotating parts.
The velocity boundary conditions are given by
At the barrel wall

Vr = R2 = 0 ð14Þ
Figure 1. Geometric and FE models of the mixer with single-
At the rotor surface winged rotors: (a) geometric model and (b) FE model.

V ðrÞ = 2pOr ð15Þ

where O and r denote the rotor rotating speed and rotor

radius, respectively.
The temperature magnitude imposed at the barrel
wall is given as

Tr = R2 = TW ð16Þ

Numerical solutions
Two Cam rotors installed in the internal mixer have the
counter-rotating speed with different speed ratios of left
rotor to right rotor setting as 3:1, 3:2, and 3:3, respec-
tively, as illustrated in Table 3. Usually, the Cam rotors
have two types of structures, namely single-winged
rotor and two-winged rotor, as illustrated in Figures 1
and 2, respectively. In order to study the fluid transpor-
tation and heat transfer characteristics in the unsymme-
trical flow field, the phase angles between the rotor
wings in both two types of rotors are all symmetrical.
Considering the periodical geometric changes, the FE
models of the two rotors and flow domains are estab- Figure 2. Geometric and FE models of the mixer with two-
lished by terms of Gambit software with the mesh winged rotors: (a) geometric model and (b) FE model.
superposition technique. The quadrilateral cells are
used to mesh the rotors and flow domains, as shown in
Figures 1(b) and 2(b). In order to accurately capture respectively. The time step, namely 160 steps/period, is
the velocity gradients in the small clearances between chosen in our simulations considering the cost of com-
the rotor and barrel walls and near the walls, three cell puting. In addition, the grid independence test is
layers are employed in the FE model (see Figures 1(b) employed and it proves that the mesh with 21,879 ele-
and 2(b)). Meanwhile, the FE model of two-winged ments is sufficient to resolve the flow velocity
rotors has 21,879 elements and 22,546 nodes, properties.
Zhu et al.
Based on the generalized Newtonian approach, all
simulations are carried out using a commercial CFD
software, ANSYS Polyflow. In this work, the residual
criteria of 1024 are adopted for all the simulations. The
details of temperature and flow boundary conditions
for all simulations are illustrated in Table 3.
Calculations of FTLE and LCSs
The LCS proposed by Haller and Yuan22 was used to
describe the coherent structures of two-dimensional
flow which defined as manifolds upon the dynamics.
These manifolds are useful to understand the material
transport from experimental and numerical flow data,
especially explain the underlying mixing reasons of the
high-viscosity fluid flow resulting in laminar flow.
Let us consider a two-dimensional flow dynamical
system
_ = v(x(t), t)
x(t)
x(t0 ) = x0
where x is a fluid point trajectory and vary in a
bounded flow domain, D  R2, on an arbitrary interval
of time [t0, t]. The solution of the dynamical system
given in equation (17) in a certain time can be viewed
as a flow map. It is denoted by utt0 and satisfies as
follows37
utt0 : D ! D : x0 7! utt0 (x0 ) = x(t; t0 , x0 )
Then a finite-time version of Cauchy–Green defor-
mation tensor by displacement grads tensor form the
trajectory x(t) of the dynamical system are obtained
by
 critical mixing condition. With the increase of the rotor
dut0 + T LE (x) dutt00 + T LE (x)
C = t0
dx dx
where M* denotes the adjoint of M. C is the Cauchy–
Green deformation tensor. TLE is the time interval. The
maximum and minimum eigenvectors of the C in equa-
tion (19) imply that there are compression and expansion
along the trajectory, respectively; and the maximum
stretching occurs in direction aligned with the eigenvector
associated with the maximum eigenvalue of C.
So, the FTLE with a finite integral time TLE can be
defined as
1 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
sTt0LE (x) = ln lmax (C)
jTLE j
In which, sTt0 (x) denotes the FTLE; TLE is associated with
point x 2 D at time t0; lmax (C) is the maximum eigenvalue
of C. The LCSs are approximately obtained by the ridges
of the FTLE field at time t for initial position37 and repre-
sent the stable and unstable material lines in the unsteady
5
fluid flow. It may clearly understand the mixing and trans-
portation behaviors in the unsteady flow.
Based on the velocity field in the mixer calculated by
Polyflow software, the fluid particle positions at the
time t + TLE are located using the fourth-order
Runge–Kutta scheme by MATLAB software. Then the
spatial gradient dut xðtÞ=dx is used to determine the
Cauchy–Green deformation tensor for each initial
point, and the FTLE field in the mixer is obtained at
time t of each grid point from equation (20).
Results and discussion
Fluid transport characteristics
LCS is adopted to understand the fluid transport prop-
erties in the mixers. The forward-time FTLE maps in
the mixers with different speed ratios of 3:3, 3:2, and
3:1 with integration time TLE = 30 s and initial time
t = 0 s are shown in Figure 3(a)–(c), respectively. From
ð17Þ this figure, the repelling LCSs in the forward-time
FTLE maps are legible observed and the adjacent par-
ticles tend to rapidly deviate from these repelling LCSs.
For the model of internal mixer with rotor speed
ratio of 3:3 (see Figure 3(a)), there is always a vertical
red ridge in the forward-time FTLE maps, which
appears in the middle of the mixer with initial time.
The whole flow domain is separated into two island
regions, namely the left and right chamber, by the verti-
ð18Þ cal red ridge as a quasi-boundary. The flux between the
two regions is extremely small, because the particle tra-
jectories across this line are forbidden. This means that
there is almost nothing material exchange in the left
and right chambers. Therefore, the mixing pattern in
the mixer with the rotor speed ratio of 3:3 is called the
speed ratios, such as rotor speed ratios of 3:2 and 3:1,
ð19Þ
the critical mixing condition is break down and the ver-
tical straight line is replaced by the tortuous polyline,
as shown in Figure 3(b) and (c).
In addition, it can be found from Figure 3 that sev-
eral ‘‘kinks’’ of curved LCS structures (namely horse-
shoe map) appear near the tip of rotors, which is
important for a better mixing due to the increase of
material exchange. It is noted that the ‘‘kinks’’ struc-
tures are excited by the rotor wings. Therefore, the two-
winged rotor can induce the greater length scale of
‘‘kinks’’ than the single-winged rotor in the mixer. In
comparison with rotor speed ratios of 3:2 and 3:1 in
ð20Þ Figure 3(b) and (c), respectively, it can be found that
the length scale of ‘‘kinks’’ in the mixer with rotor speed
ratio of 3:1 is greater than that with rotor speed ratio of
3:2, implying the high mixing efficiency. Therefore, a
big rotor speed ratio can induce great material exchange
in the mixer. This can explain the reason for using the
unsymmetrical rotor speed of internal mixers in practice
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 3. Forward-time FTLE maps in the mixers with two kinds of rotors at integration time T = 30 s with different rotor speed
ratios: (a) 3:3, (b) 3:2, and (c) 3:1.

for polymer processing industry, such as the rotor ratios
of 3:1 and 3:2. Therefore, the following study of heat
transfer in the mixer adopts the rotor speed ratio of 3:2.
To further study the fluid transportation in the flow
systems, the main repelling and attracting LCSs are
redrawn in the mixer with two-winged rotors and rotor
speed ratio of 3:2, as shown in Figure 4. From this fig-
ure, it can be seen that there are several intersections
between the unstable and stable manifolds. However,
theses intersections are not the hyperbolic fixed point
but rather the degenerate homoclinic points. This is dif-
ferent from the co-rotating rotor mixers.26 First, the
fluid particles on both sides of the repelling LCS move
along the repelling LCS. Then, when the fluid particles
pass through the degenerate homoclinic points, they
will enter the left or right chamber. Due to the degen-
eration of the hyperbolic fixed point in the flow system,
the folding action in the mixer decreases.
Heat transfer characteristics
When the speed ratio of 15:10 r/min and TW = 493 K
are employed as boundary conditions, the temperature
and the mass fraction distributions of resultant TiO2
and reactant Ti(OR)4 in the mixers with single-winged
and two-winged rotors are illustrated in Figures 5
and 6, respectively. It is clear from Figure 5(a) and (b)
that the temperature values near the rotor wings are
higher than those near wall in the mixer. This is because
the reactive fluid has great shear rates near the wings of
Zhu et al. 7

rate, as shown in Figures 5(c) and 6(c). With the

Figure 4. The repelling LCS (red) and attracting LCS (blue)
redrawn from the FTLE maps in the two-winged rotor mixer
with speed ratio of 3:2.
rotors than the chamber. The temperature values are
higher in the left half channel than right half channel
due to the great shear rate with high the left rotor
speed. Correspond, the high temperature fluid has big
mass fraction of resultant (TiO2) due to great reactive
increasing of reactive time, the temperature rises and
mass fraction of resultant for the reactive fluid increase,
as shown in Figures 5(d) and 6(d). However, the mass
fraction of resultant for the reactive fluid decreases with
the increase of reactive time, as shown in Figure 5(e)
and (f). In addition, comparison with Figures 5 and 6,
it can be found that the reactive fluid has higher tem-
perature and mass fraction of resultant in the mixer
with two-winged rotors than those with single-winged
rotors due to great shear rates.
In order to better learn about the local temperature
changes during the reactive process, three probe points
in the mixer are selected, as shown in Figure 7.
Meanwhile, Locations A and B locate in the gap
between barrel and rotor wings of left and right chan-
nels in the mixers with single-winged and two-winged
rotors, respectively. Location C locates in the center of
the mixing region in the mixers.
The temperature changes of three probe points (see
Figure 7) in the mixer with single-winged and two-

Figure 5. Temperature and TiO2 concentration distributions in the mixer with single-winged rotors (speed ratio of 15:10 r/min and
TW = 493 K): (a) temperature distribution at t = 10 s; (b) temperature distribution at t = 30 s; (c) TiO2 concentration pattern at t = 10 s;
(d) TiO2 concentration pattern at t = 30 s; (e) H2O concentration pattern at t = 10 s; and (f) H2O concentration pattern at t = 30 s.
8 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 6. Temperature and TiO2 concentration distributions in the mixer with two-winged rotors (speed ratio of 15:10 r/min and
TW = 493 K): (a) temperature distribution at t = 10 s; (b) TiO2 concentration distribution at t = 10 s; (c) temperature distribution at
t = 30 s; (d) TiO2 concentration distribution at t = 30 s; (e) H2O concentration distribution at t = 10 s; and (f) H2O concentration
distribution at t = 30 s.

winged rotors under the speed ratio of 15:10 r/min and

TW = 493 K are shown in Figure 8. Initially, all tempera-
ture magnitudes in the mixers with single-winged and
two-winged rotors increase with time until the thermal
steady state is obtained at about 110 s. Meanwhile,
Location C has higher temperature than Locations A
and B due to great shear rate and high mixing efficiency
in the mixing region. At the same time, it can be found
from Figure 8 that the amplitudes and periods of tem-
perature fluctuations in Location C during the steady
state are larger than those in Locations A and B. This is
due to the fact that the shear rate value and its changed Figure 7. Positions of three detecting points in the mixer.
frequency induced by rotor wings are higher in Location
C than in Locations A and B. On the other hand, in the
same local positions of the flow region, the reactive fluid
Relationship of transportation and heat transfer
in the mixer with two-winged rotors has higher tempera- Comparing with Figures 3, 5, and 6, it can be found that
ture than that with single-winged rotors due to great the higher temperature values mainly locate in the outer
shear rates. In addition, it can be observed from Figure 8 region, where fluid transport is better, and the lower tem-
that the period of temperature change in the mixer with perature values mainly locate in the inner region, such as
two-winged rotors is about 2 s and more two times than near the rotor wall due to the poor fluid transport in the
that with single-winged rotors due to great numbers of mixer with two-winged rotors. At the same time, the fluid
two-rotor wings. near the horseshoe map has also great temperature
Zhu et al.
Figure 8. Temperature changes of three detecting points in the mixer with two types of rotors.
magnitude due to the high material exchange. Moreover,
the temperature separatrix of left and right chambers is
almost similar to the repelling LCS due to the underlying
quasi-boundary of fluid transport. In addition, it is noted
that Location C is near the degenerate homoclinic point,
where there is better fluid transportation. Therefore, the
fluid temperature magnitude in location C has great tem-
perature (see Figure 8) due to the combination of fluid
transportation and shear rate.
Effect of rotational rotor speed on the heat transfer
The rotor speed is an important factor to determine the
output during operation conditions. The influences of
rotor speeds and speed ratios on the average temperature
distributions in the mixers with single-winged and two-
winged rotors at TW = 493 K are shown in Figure 9(a)
and (b), respectively. It is found from Figure 9(a) that
the average temperatures in the mixers increase with
increasing the rotational speeds due to the increasing
shear rates. On the other hand, the fluid in the mixer
with two-winged rotors has higher average temperature
values of reactive fluid than that with single-winged
rotors because of the relatively great overall shear rates
and chaotic mixing strength. In Figure 9(b), it is obvious
that with the increasing of the rotor speed ratios, the
average temperatures in the mixers also increase. This is
mainly because the chaotic mixing strengths in the mixers
with single-winged and two-winged rotors increase due
to the non-symmetric flow field induced by the asymme-
trically rotational speed ratios.
The effects of rotational speeds on the viscous dissi-
pation and viscous heating in the mixer with single-
winged rotors at TW = 493 K are illustrated in Figures
10 and 11, respectively. Generally, the local shear rate
determines the viscous heating the mixers. From Figure
10, it is obvious that the viscous dissipation increases
significantly with increasing of rotor speeds and the
9
numbers of rotor wings due to great local shear rate of
reactive fluid. In addition, the viscous dissipation fluc-
tuations in the mixer with single-winged rotors at speed
of 30:20 r/min are larger than those at 15:10 and 9:6 r/
min, as shown in Figure 10. This is because that the
reactive fluid in the mixer with two-winged rotors has
faster change of shear rate than that with single-winged
rotor propelled by the rotor wings.
As shown in Figure 11, it is clear that the amplitude
of viscous heat generation increases significantly with
increasing of the rotor speeds. This can also be identi-
fied from temperature pattern as illustrated in Figure 8.
However, when the rotational speeds in the mixers are
same, the amplitudes of viscous heat generation in loca-
tion A of the mixers with single-winged and two-winged
rotors are almost same. But the viscous heating genera-
tion of single-winged rotor has smaller period of fluc-
tuation than that of two-winged rotors. Therefore, the
viscous dissipation increases significantly with increas-
ing of the numbers of rotor wings.
Torque refers to the hindering force melt, when poly-
mer resins or compounds are plasticized and mixed with
rotation of rotors. Figure 12 shows the effects of rota-
tional speeds on the torques of right rotor in the mixers
with two types of rotors at TW = 493 K. In Figure 12,
the torques of right rotor increases with the increasing
of the rotor speeds, which lead to both increase of local
shear rates and viscous dissipation. In addition, the tor-
ques of right rotor also increase with the increase of the
number of rotor wings. This corresponds to the rules of
viscous dissipation in the mixers.
Effect of initial barrel temperature on the heat
transfer
Temperature increases are mainly due to the viscous
dissipation and heat transfer from the barrel.
10
Figure 9. Influences of rotor rotational speeds and speed
ratios on the average temperature distributions with
TW = 493 K: (a) rotational speeds and (b) speed ratios.
Meanwhile, the barrel temperature is an important
factor to control the temperature change of the reac-
tive system. Figure 13 shows the effects of initial bar-
rel temperatures on the average temperature in the
mixers with single- and two-winged rotors. It is found
that the average temperature in the mixers increases
rapidly with increasing the initial barrel temperatures
due to the decreasing of reactive fluid viscosity caused
by high temperatures. On the other hand, the mixer
with two-winged rotors has higher average tempera-
ture value of reactive fluid than that with single-
winged rotors, because the mixer with two-winged
rotors has relatively great overall shear rate. In addi-
tion, it can be found from Figure 13 that the tempera-
ture rise in the mixers decreases with the increasing of
barrel temperatures. At the same time, the tempera-
ture differences in the mixers between the single-
winged and two-winged rotors also decrease with the
increasing of barrel temperatures likely due to the bet-
ter mixing efficiency.
Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Figure 10. Effects of rotational speeds on the viscous
dissipation at Location A with TW = 493 K.
Figure 14 gives out the influences of initial barrel
temperatures on the viscous heating at Location A in
the mixer with single-winged rotors at speed ratios of
15:10 r/min. It is clear from Figure 14 that the viscous
heating at Location A decreases with increasing the ini-
tial barrel temperatures. This is due to the fact that the
viscosity of reactive fluid decreases with the increasing
of the initial barrel temperatures. It also implies that
the temperature rises caused by viscous heating are
lower with low initial barrel temperature. Moreover,
the influences of initial barrel temperatures on the vis-
cous dissipations at Location A of the mixers are shown
in Figure 15. As shown in this figure, it can be found
that the viscous dissipation decreases with the increas-
ing of the initial barrel temperatures. The viscous dissi-
pation leads to increase the temperature throughout the
mixer, as shown in Figure 13. Furthermore, the mixer
with single-winged rotors has bigger viscous dissipation
than that with two-winged rotors due to great local
shear rate caused by much rotor wings at the same ini-
tial barrel temperature.
The effect of initial barrel temperatures on the tor-
que of right rotor in the mixes at Location A with
speed ratio of 15:10 r/min is shown in Figure 16. It can
be seen from Figure 16 that an increase initial barrel
temperature results in a lower torque of right rotor.
This is because when the barrel temperature is higher, a
viscosity of reactive fluid is lower. Therefore, the mix-
ing efficiency and local shear rate are higher, leading to
a lower torques of two rotors. From torques distribu-
tions of rotors in Figures 13 and 16, it is noted that the
torques changes of single-winged rotors are greater
than those of two-winged rotors. This is because the
frequency of propelled effects by the rotor wings with
two-winged rotors is faster than those with single-
winged rotors.
Zhu et al. 11

Figure 11. Effects of rotational speeds on the viscous heating at Location A with TW = 493 K.

Figure 12. Effects of rotational speeds on the torques of right Figure 13. Effects of initial barrel temperatures on the average
rotor with TW = 493 K. temperature in the mixer.

Conclusion
1. Different from the co-rotating rotor mixer, the
repelling and attracting LCSs of counter-rotating
rotor mixer only has the degenerate homoclinic
points, resulting in the decrease of fluid folding
action. The critical mixing state can be found in
the mixer with the rotor speed ratio of 3:3, where
there is almost nothing material exchange in the
left and right chambers. With the increase of the
rotor speed ratios, such as rotor speed ratios of
3:2 and 3:1, the critical mixing condition is break
down and the material exchanges in the left and
right chambers increase.
2. The reactive fluid in the left half channel has Figure 14. Influences of initial barrel temperatures on the
greater temperature value than that in the right viscous heating at Location A.
half channel due to great shear rates and better
fluid transport. Also, the mixer with two-winged reactive fluid than that with single-winged
rotors has higher average temperature value of rotors.
12
Figure 15. Influences of initial barrel temperatures on the
viscous dissipations.
Figure 16. Effects of initial barrel temperatures on the torques
of right rotor.
3. Those parameters, such as average temperature,
viscous dissipation, viscous heat generation, and
torque of rotor, in the two types of mixers all
increase with increasing the rotational speeds.
Moreover, above parameters in two-winged
rotor mixer are bigger than those in single-
winged rotor mixer. The sensitivity of conver-
sion rate for this sol–gel reaction is sensitive to
the initial barrel temperature in the internal
mixers.
4. The temperature distribution depends on both
shear rate and fluid transportation in the inter-
nal mixer. The fluid in the outer region with
better fluid transportation has higher tempera-
ture value than that in inner region with rela-
tively poor fluid transport. Moreover, the fluid
near the horseshoe map has also great tempera-
ture magnitude due to the high material
exchange.
Advances in Mechanical Engineering
5. From the viewpoint of fluid transportation and
temperature characteristics, the internal mixer
with two-winged rotors increases in comparison
to the single-winged rotors, but not significantly.
Future work will devise a novel rotor mixer,
such as adding the grooves on rotor wings, to
significantly increase the mixing and heat trans-
fer efficiency.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article: This research project was funded by National Natural
Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51473073 and
50903042), Program for Liaoning Excellent Talents in
University (grant no. LR2016022), and Natural Science
Foundation of Liaoning Province (grant no. 2015020142).
ORCID iD
XZ Zhu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1523-1958
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