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Impact of approximating the initial bubble pressure on cell nucleation in polymeric foaming processes
Author(s) -
Leung Siu N.,
Li Hongbo,
Park Chul B.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.25728
Subject(s) - nucleation , bubble , thermodynamics , maximum bubble pressure method , saturation (graph theory) , materials science , classical nucleation theory , bubble point , mechanics , physics , mathematics , combinatorics
According to the classical nucleation theory, the free energy barrier for bubble nucleation, and thereby the nucleation rate, are functions of the initial bubble pressure, P bubble, 0 . In almost all of the previous studies that have used computer simulations to investigate polymeric foaming processes, the value of P bubble, 0 has been approximated using the saturation pressure, P sat . This article employs the thermodynamic equilibrium condition and the Sanchez–Lacombe (SL) equation of state (EOS) to determine the value of P bubble, 0 . It is shown that using P sat to approximate P bubble, 0 may lead to significant overestimations of the nucleation rate and the final cell density. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 902–908, 2007