UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN

Faculty of Engineering and Green Technology

Bachelor of Engineering (HONS) Petrochemical Engineering

UGPA 3173 UNIT OPERATION II

Experiment 1: MIXING OF SOLIDS

Group: G4 (Thursday group)

Student’s details:
Name ID. No. Year /
Trimester

ANG CHIN WEI 1503765 Y3S3

CHAW JIN SHENG 1505084 Y3S3

GOH LE YUAN 1504458 Y3S3

LEE WEI HERN 1503476 Y3S3

DIHARTHERAN A/L RAVICHANDRAN 1403809 Y3S3

Submission Date: 11/3/2019

Instructor Name: DR. Mathialagan a/l Muniyadi

1.0 OBJECTIVE

a. To study the mixing mechanism of solids using an internal mixer

b. To study the effect of different solids and solid composition on the mixing torque of
internal mixer

2.0 PROCEDURE

a. The Brabender internal mixer was cleaned up by 45g of polypropylene (PP). The
temperature was set at 180℃ and run for 4minutes.

b. The product was removed from the mixer and removed.

c. The first set of material composition was fixed at 90wt% of tyre powder and 10wt% of
PVC. The following set was set at 70wt% of tyre powder and 30wt% of PVC.

d. The total allowable weight was 55g. Thus, both of the materials were weighed at the
digital weighing scale according to the respective %wt.

e. Before starting to run the experiment, all the parameters were set in the program. The
temperature was set at 175℃, the mixing time was set at 4 minutes and the speed was set
at 60rpm.

f. The mixture was poured into the hopper and the “Start” button in the program was
pressed at the same time.

g. After 4 minutes, the “Stop” button on the device was pressed. Then, the two hexagon
socket screws were loosened and the hopper was removed.

h. All of the parts were cleaned up by the cleaning tools and the product was collected.

i. All of the parts were assembled back to original position.

j. The experiment was repeated with another set of material composition

3.0 RESULTS

Composition
90% wt of PVC 70% wt of PVC
Loading torque (Nm) 25.355 27.835
Stabilization torque (Nm) 6.27 12.065
Table 1: Loading torque and stabilization torque for 90% wt of and 70% wt of PVC.

Figure 1: Torque against time for different composition.

4.0 DISCUSSION

The Brabender Internal Mixer refer to device that used for non-continuous production of
homogeneous polymer, elastomer, ceramic or other mixture. The mixer utilize mixer blades and
stator to create shear. The stator refer to a stationary component that creates a close-clearance gap
between the mixer blades and itself which provide a high-shear zone for the material. The mixer
blades will direct the raw materials outward towards the stator and shear the material.(Quadro,
2013) The raw material was loaded into the heated mixer bowl and being homogenized by a mixing
blades. The raw materials will be melted in the mixer. Mixer blades will force part of the raw
material in one direction and another part of the material in the opposite direction within a same
parallel plane.(Quadro, 2013) This phenomenon is known as shear. The velocity difference of the
material between the outside diameter and center of the mixer blades will create shear. The velocity
of the material at outside diameter will be higher than the center of rotor.

In this experiment, the effect of solid composition on the mixing torque of internal mixer
was studied. In the first run of this experiment, 70% of PVC was used to mix with 30% of WTP
(waste tyre powder). For the second run of this experiment, the composition of PVC and WTP
were changed to 90% and 10% respectively. According to the torque curves as shown in Figure 1,
both torque curves show the increasing trend initially. After the maximum mixing torque is reached,
the curve is started to drop after the PVC and WTP started to melt. Lastly, the torque remains
unchanged for a few minutes. The maximum and unchanged torque can be called as loading torque
and stabilization torque respectively. However, the torque curve for 70% PVC and 30% WTP is
higher than the torque curve for 90% PVC and 10% WTP. Based on the Table 1, the loading and
stabilization torque for 70% PVC and 30% WTP are 27.835Nm and 12.065Nm respectively.
Meanwhile, the loading and stabilization torque for 90% PVC and 10% WTP are dropped to
25.385Nm and 6.27Nm respectively.

In the term of loading torque, 70% PVC and 30% WTP has higher loading torque than 90%
PVC and 10% WTP. This happened is due to the friction created by the WTP. The greater the
amount of WTP is added, the higher the magnitude of friction is created. This is because of its
larger surface area compared to PVC. The more the WTP added, the higher the surface area created,
thereby resulting in greater friction. Therefore, stronger shear force is needed to mix the PVC and
WTP. This will lead to higher torque value due to its energy consumption. (Balakrishna, S et al.,
2012)

In the term of stabilization torque, 70% PVC and 30% WTP has also higher stabilization
torque than 90% PVC and 10% WTP. The stabilization torque is depending on the viscosity of the
mixture. The presence of WTP will create an addition of viscosity on the mixture. Thus, the greater
amount of WTP is added, the higher the viscosity. The mixture loses its mobility due to high
viscosity. In other words, high viscosity mixture is harder to flow compare to low viscosity mixture.
Hence, more shear force is required to shear the mixture of 70% PVC and 30% WTP compared to
the mixture of 90% PVC and 10% WTP. In addition, the higher the torque value, the lower the
process ability. (Balakrishna, S et al., 2012)

The Brabender internal mixer is not suitable for the dry mixing of tyre powder and PVC.
The main reason is because the occurrence of segregation. In many systems, particles to be
mixed have different properties and tend to exhibit segregation. Generally, the reasons that lead
to segregation are differences in size, density and shape of constituent particles of a mixture.
There are 4 major types of mechanism of segregation which are trajectory segreagation, size
segregation, vibration segregation and elutriation segregation. (Rhodes, 2008)

In this situation, the tyre powder which is in powder form has a much smaller particle
size compared to the PVC. When the mixture of particle is disturbed, the smaller particles tend to
migrate downward in the direction of gravity through the void spaces between the larger particles
and leads to segregation. Thus, the bottom layer of mixture will consist of more fine particles.
(Shimoska, et al., 2013)

Other than that, the Brabander internal mixer also not suitable for dry mixing. This is
because the torque will continue to raise even after exceeding the loading torque due to there is
no melting point in dry mixing. Hence, in the graph generated, the torque will continuously shoot
up.
5.0 CONCLUSION

The shear mixing had applied in mixing of PVC and waste tyre powder (WTP). The
greater amount of WTP added, the higher the surface area created, the greater friction between
WTP and PVC, stronger shear force was required and result in higher torque. The loading torque
increased when the composition of WTP increased. Meanwhile, the process ability was depend
on the stabilization torque. The higher the torque value, the lower the process ability as the WTP
will create an addition of viscosity on the mixture. Hence, the mixture with 70% wt of PVC had
a lower process ability compared to the mixture with 90% wt of PVC.

6.0 PRELAB

1. How is solids mixing different from liquid or gas mixing?

Solid mixing is difficult to create flow due to friction produced by each solid particle
compare to liquid or gas mixing which can create flow. In solid, the particles are arranged
packed closely to each other and hence provided higher interaction between each solid
particle due to lesser free volume. Meanwhile, the particle in liquid or gas can flow and
move easily due to present a lot of free volume. This is because there is no restriction in
particle arrangement in both liquid and gas. Hence, it can conclude that solid mixing is the
toughest between liquid and gas mixing. (Bagley, 2016) Besides, solid mixing required
higher power consumption compare to that of liquid mxing.

2. What is the significant of mixer torque? How is it related to the energy input?

The significance of the mixer torque is used to determine the viscosity of the
mixture. The speed of flow in mixture will become slower when the viscosity of the mixture
is higher. The higher mixer speed is required to maintain a well mixing. Therefore, greater
torque is required to maintain high speed in mixture and hence greater energy is needed to
generate greater torque. When the viscosity of mixture increases, the energy required
increases to generate greater torque that reduce the flow in mixture. The relationship
between energy and torque is shown at below equation:
 𝑬 = 𝝉𝜽

Where E is the energy, 𝜏 is the magnitude of the torque and 𝜃 is the angle moved (in
radian). (Bauman, 2008)

3. What are the factors that can influence the torque of a solid mixer?

There are 6 main factors that will influence the torque of a solid mixer:

a. Melting temperature
The higher the temperature, the faster the solid to melt, the smaller the torque is
required to mix the solid. However, the energy required is high due to heat up the
solid by high temperature.

b. Mixing time
The optimum mixing time is important for well mixing. As degree of mixing
reaches to its limiting equilibrium value asymptotically.

c. Mixing speed
The higher the speed of mixing, the higher the torque generated. This is because
the higher the interaction between the surface of the mixer and solid.

d. Type of solid
The torque will be greater when the solid is cohesive which will interact with both
solid particles and the surface of mixer. However, the solid which is not cohesive,
the torque will be smaller due to less interact with solid particle and surface of
mixer.

e. Composition of solid
Different solid composition have different interaction during mixing process. The
less torque is required for the solid composition that can mix well whereas higher
torque is required for the solid composition that do not mix well.
 f. Mixing sequence
Different torque value can be obtained when the different sequences to put the
material into the mixer. For example, put Solid A first then Solid B or put Solid B
first then Solid A or mix both Solid A and B then put together. (Noor, 2013)

7.0 REFRENCES

Bagley, M. (2016). Matter: Definition & the Five States of Matter. [Online] Available at:
https://www.livescience.com/46506-states-of-matter.html [Accessed 10 March 2019]

Balakrishna, S., Ismail, H. and Othman, N. (2012). The Effects of Rattan Filler Loadings on
Properties of Rattan Powder-Filled Polypropylene Composites. BioResources, 7(4), pp.5677-5690.

Bauman, I., Curic, D., Boban, M. (2008). Mixing of Solids in different Mixing Devices. Sadhana,
33(6), pp. 721-731.

Noor, I., 2013. Factors that are affecting teh mixing operation. Mixing Operation, pp. 5-7.

Quadro, (2013). HIGH SHEAR MIXING FAQS. [Online] Available at:

https://www.quadroliquids.com/high-shear-mixing-faqs/ [Accessed 9 March 2019]

Rhodes, M., 2008. Introduction to Particle Technology. 2nd ed. West Sussex: John Wiley &
Sons.

Shimoska, A., Nousou, I., Shirakawa, Y. & Hidaka, J., 2013. Effect of Particle Shape on Size
Segregation of Particles. Chemical Engineering Transaction, Volume 32, pp. 2143-2145.