Polymer processing and rheology

Polymer products have been utilized for a variety of applications in our daily lives, as well as for diverse industrial applications. One of the important reasons for the growing applications of polymers in recent decades is the facile strategies to convert them into complex shapes. For the purpose of the manufacturing desired polymer products, from the production of raw materials to the preparation of finished products, many processing methods are involved, including mixing, extrusion, molding, calendering, and coating. The success of the polymer processing techniques depends upon controlling the rheological behaviors of the polymer melts/suspensions. The shear flow behaviors can be controlled by manipulating several polymer parameters like molecular weight, molecular weight distribution and chain branching, using modifiers like fillers, plasticizers and other polymers and adjusting the processing variables like temperature, shear, and pressure. Thus, the successful processing of polymeric materials requires a thorough understanding of their rheological behavior, and the characterization of the polymer melts/suspensions by relevant rheometry is critical for the control of polymer processing. In this chapter, we describe briefly some of the typical polymer processing techniques, typical rheological phenomena of polymer solutions and suspensions, and the relationships between polymer rheology and polymer processing. The introduction of rheometry and fundamentals of the relevant rheological concepts are also provided.