| Abstract: | The effects of ultrasonic oscillation on die pressure, productivity of extrusion, melt viscosity, and melt oscillating flow of polystyrene (PS) as well as their mechanism were studied in a special ultrasonic oscillations extrusion system developed in our lab. The experimental results show that in the presence of ultrasonic oscillations, the PS melt oscillating flow or surface distortion of PS extrudate is inhibited or disappears. The surface appearance of PS extrudate gets greatly improved. The die pressure, melt viscosity, flow activation energy, and consistency efficiency of PS decreased and the productivity of PS extrudate increased in the presence of ultrasonic oscillation. The shear sensitivity of PS melt viscosity is decreased because of the increase of its power law index in the presence of ultrasonic oscillation. Introduction of ultrasonic oscillation into PS melt can greatly improve the processibility of PS. Their possible mechanism is also proposed in this article. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 2451–2460, 2002 |
