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Simulation of bulk free radical polymerization of styrene in tubular reactors
Author(s) -
Soliman M. A.,
Aljarboa T.,
Alahmad M.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.760341905
Subject(s) - materials science , tube (container) , mechanics , radius , discretization , styrene , monomer , orthogonal collocation , polymerization , flow (mathematics) , differential equation , thermodynamics , composite material , collocation method , ordinary differential equation , copolymer , polymer , physics , mathematics , mathematical analysis , computer security , computer science , quantum mechanics
A model that takes into consideration radial and axial changes in velocity in a tubular reactor for the thermal polymerization of styrene is used to simulate the effect of changes in inlet tube wall temperature and tube radius. The reactor performance is sensitive to the changes of these parameters. The method of orthogonal collocation is used to discretize the modeling equation in the radial direction and Gear method to solve the resulting stiff differential equations in the axial direction. It is found that reducing the wall temperature and the tube radius along the direction of the flow of the monomer reduces the variation in conversion between the tube center and tube wall and thus are advantageous.