An investigation of melting and metering sections in a single-screw extruder

For an ABS resin, a three-dimensional finite element simulation of melting and flow in the melting and metering sections of a single-screw extruder was performed using barrel rotation boundary conditions. In the simulations, the flow domain was modeled as a full three-dimensional helical channel with flight clearance. The simulation results were then compared with the corresponding results from the screw-freezing experiment. Maddock melting mechanism was observed both in experimental results and numerical predictions. However, some discrepancies existed between the numerical predictions and experimental results, which are further discussed in the paper. These discrepancies may be clarified with simulations using screw rotation boundary conditions.