Abstract
An experimental study on the devolatilizing performances of screw elements with different screw geometries in an intermeshing co-rotating twin-screw extruder (ICoTSE) was conducted using a polystyrene/ethylbenzene (PS/EB) system. The experimental devolatilization (DV) data and literature data obtained in the same type of ICoTSE with a different screw diameter for the same PS/EB system are correlated by the proposed model, where the effect of differences in screw geometries, screw diameters, degree of filling, and fully-filled length in the screw channels as well as changes in the operating temperature caused by the shear heat on DV are taken into account. Furthermore, the difference in the description of the surface renewal DV in a screw extruder between the proposed model and Latinen-type models in the case of ignoring the backmixing of axial dispersion is compared and discussed.
