Modeling of the morphology dynamics of heterogeneous polymer blends

The material properties of heterogeneous polymer blends are crucially influ enced by their morphology, i.e. by the spatial structure of the blend compo nents. In order to understand the experimentally resulting morphologies, th e dynamics of the morphology formation have to be modeled. The discussed model consists of a system of partial differential equations based on a modified Cahn-Hilliard equation, the continuity equation, and a modified Navier-Stokes equation. It includes the essential material and pro cessing parameters like surface tension, viscosity and volume fraction of b oth polymers, and imposed shear rate. For the simulation of a two dimension al model a numerical algorithm was developed. Simulations show a variety of morphologies in dependence on the processing parameters that qualitatively correspond to experimental results.