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Solidification Research
This research area is Cool! When Polymers cool they may form Crystals
and Spherulites depending on how fast one cools them. We have developed
a process model that couples the growth of spherulites at the micro scale
with then macroscale heat transport to track the crystalinity and temperature
distribution of thermoplastic materials under various cooling conditions.
A finite element based program called SPUD (Solificiation of Polymers at
University of Delaware) has been developed. This allows us to investigate
complicated geometries and predict the temperature and crystallinity distributions
in them. These will prove useful in estimating the mechanical and warpage
and shrinkage the material might undergo after cooling! |
Spherulites Size Distribution in L-shaped Bracket |