Effect of viscous dissipation in the prediction of thermal behavior of an elastomer cylindrical flow

In this work, the thermal behavior of an elastomer flow all along a cylindrical runner placed at the outlet of an extruder is studied. A cylindrical runner thermally regulated and highly instrumented was designed. It is equipped with a new intrusive thermal sensor, developed in the lab and named thermal measurement cell (TMC). This device is used to measure temperature profiles at the inlet and the outlet of the flow. Several experiments are performed with an elastomer by varying the rotation speed of the screw. Experiments first show the influence of viscous dissipation on the thermal behavior of such a highly viscous flow. Then, the results are used to estimate the viscosity by taking into account the temperature profile of the flow. The comparison of the estimated viscosity with the viscosity measured in a capillary rheometer shows the importance to introduce a correction in rheometric characterization and to consider a non-isothermal behavior of the flow. Experimental results are also compared with model predictions. The model is then used to perform a sensitivity analysis. The influence of the correction on the viscosity and the impact of viscous dissipation on the thermal behavior prediction of the elastomer flow are discussed.