Computational simulation of controllable structure formation among particle additives in a continuous-flow chaotic mixer

It has been demonstrated that initially, large minor phase bodies can be transformed directly in the melt state by chaotic mixing to a variety of blend morphologies, including fibrous or multilayer-film structures. Physical properties such as toughness and strength can be enhanced. If the minor phase is a solid additive, properties such as the electrical conductivity can be improved and percolation thresholds may be reduced. Prior work has been restricted to experimental demonstrations with batch and continuous flow chaotic mixers and also to computational models of morphology transitions due to interfacial effects among components. In this study, computational simulations are performed to specifically investigate process–structure relationships where particle laden compact bodies or streams are converted progressively and controllably to fine-scale structured distributions by continuous flow chaotic mixing. Minor phase particles were assembled into small regions to represent initial bodies. An analytic velocity field was utilized so that the motion of large numbers of passive particles was accurately calculable as the structure evolved towards a discharge point.