| Abstract: | Scale-up from small laboratory size extruders to large production size extruders is a procedure of great practical importance. Many scale-up rules and theories have been proposed in the past, however it is not always clear how the different scale-up methods will affect extruder performance. A basic analysis of scale-up in plasticating single screw extruders is developed from which the effect of a certain scale-up strategy on extrusion performance can be evaluated in terms of solids conveying, melting, melt conveying, mixing, residence time, heat transfer, power consumption, and specific energy consumption. Various existing scale-up theories are evaluated and compared using the basic analysis. A number of existing scale-up theories have some significant drawbacks, in particular with non-constant specific energy consumption and imbalance between melting rate and pumping rate. Conditions that are desirable to achieve in scale-up are enumerated and ranked in terms of importance. This leads to two new scale-up methods that result in constant mechanical specific energy consumption and high throughput rates. The first scale-up method keeps the specific surface area constant. This scale-up should work well for high values of the Brinkman number. However, at low values of the Brinkman number, the melting rate may be insufficient. The second scale-up method keeps the melting rate at low Brinkman number equal to the pumping rate and, thus, should be useful in cases where the first scale-up method cannot be used. |
