ChE 671

Final Examination
Prof. Dilhan M. Kalyon
Spring 2010, May 7, 2010, 12:30 to 3:00 p.m.
Please start open book section upon turning
in your closed book section of the exam
______________________________

Closed Book and Notes -

The time allotment suggested for each question is included as a guide.

Good luck!

1. (10 points 10 minutes) Your company is manufacturing blown film, which is generally
used for pharmaceutical packaging. In film blowing the film needs to be stretched in the
axial direction and also needs to be expanded in the radial direction by air pressure acting
inside the film bubble. The bubble breaks frequently and you are suspecting that the
manufacturer of the polymer being used is selling your company off-spec resin, which
varies from day to day but the manufacturer is denying it. You are asked to establish a
quality control program. Select one piece of equipment to purchase and identify which
experiment you would carry out with this instrument. Justify by writing a few sentences
(an executive summary to your CEO) on why the instrument selected is the proper one.

2. (10 points 10 minutes) You are given a PVC suspension for a medical grade application
that you suspect is degrading possibly through oxidative crosslinking during extrusion
processing. What type of equipment and procedures would you use to study and
document the degradation of the suspension in your lab?

3. (10 points 5 minutes) What are the typical error sources in step strain flow for the
characterization of the relaxation modulus?
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4. (10 points, 10 minutes)

A polymeric fluid is to undergo simple shear in a cone and plate viscometer. The shear rate
is altered according to:

Shear rate, s-1 time

0.0 <0 s
1 s-1  0 s and <15 min
0.0 15 min

a) Draw schematically how the shear stress will change as a function of time in between 0
to 30 minutes. What is happening to the fluid structure during this shearing profile,
describe.

Is a generalized Newtonian fluid (GNF) constitutive equation adequate to describe the shear
stress response of the fluid? Explain using the definition of GNF.

5. (10 points- 10 minutes)

Consider the rectangular slit flow, where the flow occurs over a slit die with a width of W, gap of
h and a length of L. You need to use this die as a rheometer. How would you design the die in
terms of the ratios of the dimensions (which criteria would you use?) What kind of
instrumentation would you install? How would you carry out your measurements to arrive at the
shear viscosity of the fluid as a function of shear rate? How would you correct the shear rate for
wall slip?

2
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Open book section:

6. (15 points 10 minutes) The following damping function has been suggested for integral
type non-linear viscoelastic constitutive equations:

h(I1, I2) = f exp

n1  
  3  (1  f ) exp  n2   3 
where I=  I1 + (1-) I2, i.e., weighted average of the invariants I1 and I2 of the
Finger strain tensor. Show that the damping function, h(I1, I2), for simple shear flow is
independent of parameter , whereas h(I1, I2) for uniaxial extensional flow is a function
of the parameter .

7. (35 points 45 minutes) Consider the following constitutive equation:

(t) =

t  0 (1  II2 )e (t t ') / 1[C 1 (1   / 2)  C ( / 2)]dt '


 1 2

where C and C are the Finger and Cauchy strain tensors and 1, 2, , 0 are parameters and
-1

II is the second invariant of the rate of deformation tensor.

a. Derive and expression for the growth of the shear stress, i.e,  (t, shear rate)
+

b. Is the shear stress overshoot possible? Is so, at what time does the stress reach its
maximum value?
c. What is the shear viscosity? Is it realistic?