The Polymer Flow Module
Non-Newtonian fluids are found in a great variety of processes in the polymer, food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, household, and fine chemicals industries. Examples of these fluids are coatings, paints, yogurt, ketchup, colloidal suspensions, aqueous suspensions of drugs, lotions, creams, shampoo, and suspensions of peptides and proteins, to mention a few. Modeling and simulation can be used to design and optimize processes where these fluids are involved.
The Polymer Flow Module is intended for the modeling and simulation of non-Newtonian fluid flow with viscoelastic, thixotropic, shear thickening, or shear thinning properties. Dependencies of fluid properties on temperature and composition can be accounted for in order to model cure and polymerization. Manufacturing processes often involve free surfaces, or surfaces between Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids: extrusion processes, coating flows, and injection molding. The Polymer Flow Module includes the necessary Multiphase Flow functionality for modeling these flows.
For studies of mixing processes, a Rotating Machinery, Fluid Flow interface has also been included.
Fully coupled and time-dependent fluid-structure interactions can be modeled with the Polymer Flow Module in combination with other modules in COMSOL Multiphysics®.