A unified model for the drying of glassy polymer coatings
In a recently published work, a unified model has been developed for the drying of the glassy polymeric coatings.
The researchers studied the solvent evaporation from the poly(methyl methacrylate)/ethyl benzene system as a one dimensional numerical moving boundary experiment with simultaneous heat and mass transfer. The developed model is based on sound non equilibrium thermodynamics principles by considering visco-elastic contribution to diffusion at the late stage of drying.
Design and optimise industrial processes
Moreover, sol-gel transition is considered to explain the high solvent concentration far away from the gas-liquid interface (drying surface) at the end of the drying experiment. The Galerkin finite element method is used to solve the model equations. The model predictions for the drying rate and solvent concentration profiles are found to be in satisfactory agreement with the available experimental data. The work can be implemented to design and optimise industrial processes.
The study is published in: Progress in Organic Coatings Volume 134, September 2019, Pages 219-225.
