Abstract: | Coat-hanger dies are commonly used for the extrusion of plastic sheets and films. To describe the flow of a molten polymer through a coat-hanger die, a two-dimensional approach is necessary. Moreover, the thermal effects, which play an important role in the flow distribution, have to be taken into account. In this paper, two numerical models for the simulation of coat-hanger dies are described and compared. These models differ mainly in the simplifying assumptions used and in the treatment of the thermal problem. The simulations obtained with the two models were compared with each other and with experimental data. The discrepancies between the two models can be explained by the different theoretical treatments. |