TRANSIENT EXPERIMENTS AND MATHEMATICAL-MODELING OF AN INDUSTRIAL TWIN-SCREW EXTRUDER REACTOR FOR NYLON-6,6 POLYMERIZATION

This paper describes transient experiments in an industrial twin-screw extruder reactor used for the finishing stage of nylon-6,6 polyconden sation. Transient experiments were specially designed to obtain pertin ent information from the industrial extruder, such as the average resi dence time and the degree of filling. A transient model for this proce ss was developed. The extruder is modeled as two compartments, the par tially filled degassing zone where water is removed from the polymer a nd the fully filled zone where the polycondensation and degradation re actions take place. The axial dispersion model is successfully applied to explain the results of the experiments done in the industrial plan t.