Elasticity and Flow Instabilities of Polymer Melts Filled with Glass Microspheres

Zdeněk Starý
Lecture of the lecture cycle
20.11.2025 10:30, Lecture room A

The lecture concerns with rheology of polymer composites containing glass microspheres of different sizes. Special attention is paid to the elasticity of filled polymer melts characterized by a die swell of the extrudates. The composites are prepared in a way that the interfacial area between the polymer and the filler particles is kept constant. This allows us to study systematically the effect of the polymer-particle interactions on the viscosity and elasticity of the composite melts and on the onset of flow instabilities . The findings obtained imply that whereas the viscosity of the composites is governed mainly by the behavior of polymer matrix and filler concentration, the die swell as a parameter describing elasticity is affected by the interfacial area.

The lecture is presented in English