Identification of particle-particle interactions in suspension polymerization reactors

Suspension polymerization is commonly used to produce micron-sized (10-1000 μm) polymer beads, in which the final particle size distribution is an important end-use property. This paper presents an integrated approach for the modeling, simulation, and parameter estimation of particle-particle dynamics during suspension polymerization. This approach integrates in situ particle size measurement with a high resolution finite volume algorithm to estimate the kinetics of particle-particle interactions while accounting for polymerization kinetics and viscoelastic effects. The resulting simulation model is sufficiently computationally efficient to enable the numerical solution of optimal control problems based on first-principles models of suspension polymerization.