Abstract
Extrusion is one of the most important operations in the polymer-processing industry. Balancing the distribution of flow through a die to achieve a uniform velocity distribution is the primary objective and one of the most difficult tasks of extrusion die design. If the manifold in a coat-hanger die is not properly designed, the exit velocity distribution may be not uniform; this can affect the thickness across the width of the die. Yet, no procedure is known to optimize the coat hanger die with respect to an even velocity profile at the exit. While optimizing the exit velocity distribution, the constraint optimization used in this work with allowable pressure drop in the die; according to this constraint we can control the pressure in the die. The computational approach incorporates three-dimensional finite element simulations software STAR-CCM+. These simulations are used with numerical optimization to design polymer coat hanger dies with pressure drop, uniform velocity and temperature variation across the die exit.
