Twin-screw kneader is an efficient polymer processing equipment. In this paper, the mixing performance of one novel intermeshing counter-rotating twin-screw kneader with different tip angles of the male rotor is simulated using the mesh superimposition technique (MST). Statistical analysis is carried out for the flow field using particle tracking technique, and distributive mixing performance is evaluated using the residence time distribution and segregation scale, while the dispersive mixing performance is estimated using the parameters such as shear rate, stretching rate and mixing index. The results show that the best distributive mixing performance is achieved when the tip angle is 0o, while the optimal dispersive mixing performance is obtained when the tip angle is 20o. The results in this paper provide a data basis for the selection of parameters and optimization of the performance for the screw rotors.

Keywords: tip angle; twin-screw kneader; rotor profiles; mixing performance