We studied the foaming of polystyrene with CO2 as the physical blowing agent at large pressure drop rates (PDRs) and at different foaming temperatures, with a novel batch foaming apparatus, capable of reaching PDRs as high as 500 MPa/s (in the underlying literature, the maximum so far achieved is 100 MPa/s). Results show that, at each foaming temperature, the number of nucleated bubbles per unit initial volume (N) linearly increases with PDR in a bilogarithmic scale, with slopes increasing with the temperature. The effect of talc as the nucleating agent was also investigated. Furthermore, a phenomenological model was developed and utilized to predict N at PDRs not experimentally accessible. The approach was validated and a good agreement with the experimental data was obtained.
Polystyrene Foaming at High Pressure Drop Rates / Tammaro, Daniele; Astarita, Antonello; DI MAIO, Ernesto; Iannace, Salvatore. - In: INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH. - ISSN 0888-5885. - 55:19(2016), pp. 5696-5701. [10.1021/acs.iecr.5b04911]
Polystyrene Foaming at High Pressure Drop Rates
Tammaro, Daniele;ASTARITA, ANTONELLO;DI MAIO, ERNESTO;IANNACE, Salvatore
2016
Abstract
We studied the foaming of polystyrene with CO2 as the physical blowing agent at large pressure drop rates (PDRs) and at different foaming temperatures, with a novel batch foaming apparatus, capable of reaching PDRs as high as 500 MPa/s (in the underlying literature, the maximum so far achieved is 100 MPa/s). Results show that, at each foaming temperature, the number of nucleated bubbles per unit initial volume (N) linearly increases with PDR in a bilogarithmic scale, with slopes increasing with the temperature. The effect of talc as the nucleating agent was also investigated. Furthermore, a phenomenological model was developed and utilized to predict N at PDRs not experimentally accessible. The approach was validated and a good agreement with the experimental data was obtained.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.