Simulation of cottonseed cake melt flow in metering zone of a single screw extruder

Abstract

Research on the extrusion of natural polymers (food, feed, etc.) is relatively new due to the complex physicochemical transformations of raw materials, although plastics melt conveying and transport have been well studied. The structure and composition, rheological behavior as well as extrusion processing of natural polymer are much more complicated. In this study, a quasi-three-dimensional (3D) fluid flow model for non-Newtonian, non-isothermal and undeveloped temperature was developed, the model prediction being in reasonably good agreement with the experiment. Results show that the influence of moisture content, among other process variables, is the most significant, followed by screw speed. Some interaction exists between these two variables and the screw speed effect becomes marginal at high moisture contents. In addition, viscosity change in the channel was studied.