Polymer Melt Temperature Distribution Measurement Research Based on ECT

Polymer melt temperature is one of the most important process variables to measure during the manufacture of polymer products, because polymer rheology and stability are directly related to polymer melt temperature. However, there is no effective means so far to measure the internal melt temperature distribution. So the authors propose a novel method to measure polymer melt temperature distribution. It is based on electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) technology and has several advantages, such as non-intrusive and non-invasive, relatively inexpensive, fast response. First, the basic principles and methods of the novel method are introduced and the key issues are discussed; then polymer melt permittivity and temperature relation model is developed by experiment, when f is 2MHz, model accuracy is ±0.4°C; At last, a set of polymer melt temperature distribution measurement system is designed, which is used to measure nylon 66 melt temperature distributions. The experimental result shows that the proposed method is more suitable for measuring polymer melt temperature distribution than traditional methods.