Prediction of Rheological Properties of LDPE Produced in High-Pressure Tubular Reactors.

DIETRICH, MAIRA L.; ASTEASUAIN, MARIANO; BRANDOLIN, ADRIANA; SARMORIA, CLAUDIA

Hyatt Regency Orlando

Congreso; 2019 AIChE Annual Meeting; 2019

AIChE- American Institute of Chemical Engineers

This work presents a high-fidelity model of a high-pressure tubular reactor for theproduction of low-density polyethylene able to predict rheological properties of the polymer. Aprevious model developed by the authors,1 which calculated molecular properties such as themolecular weight distribution, the joint molecular weight-long chain branching distribution andmolecular weight-short chain branching distribution, and average molecular properties, wasupdated to include the prediction of rheological properties such as the reptation modulus, thestorage and loss moduli and the complex viscosity. The latter is used as input to compute thepolymer melt index. The model allows analyzing the influence of operating conditions onmolecular structure and on the rheology of the polymer melt. This knowledge allows producersto design the material molecular structure in order to meet a particular processing behavior.