Rheological Study of an Extruded Fish Diet with the Addition of Hydrolyzed Protein Flour

The extrusion of food for human and animal consumption is a unit operation that includes mixing, shearing, and force to the materials related to the rheological properties of the materials in the extruder. The present work aims to study the rheological behavior of an extruded fish diet incorporating hydrolyzed protein flour (HPF) processed by extrusion. The measurement was carried out online with a slit die rheometer, defining the rheological models and parameters that fit the process. During the extrusion process, the raw materials used were hydrolyzed protein flour, fish meal, and cassava starch. For the results, the evaluated treatments were adjusted to the Power Law, where an increase in the shear rate decreases the viscosity of the material, corresponding to a pseudoplastic behavior. The incorporation of hydrolyzed protein flour presented a significant effect on the value of n and Klp, increasing the viscosity with the increase in the percentage of inclusion of HPF. The models obtained for the prediction of the viscosity are adjusted to the system’s changes in shear rate, temperature, and humidity. The importance of the study lies in the fact that the diet developed can be applied to feed fish, and production is currently being scaled up to pilot plants for direct use by some producer communities.

Rheological Study of an Extruded Fish Diet with the Addition of Hydrolyzed Protein Meal

The extrusion of food for human and animal consumption is a unit operation that includes mixing, shearing and force to the materials related to the rheological properties of the materials in the extruder. The present work aims to study the rheological behavior of an extruded fish diet incorporating hydrolyzed protein flour processed by extrusion. The measurement was carried out online with a slit die rheometer, defining the rheological models and parameters that fit the process. During the extrusion process, the raw materials used were hydrolyzed protein meal, fish meal and cassava starch. For the results, the evaluated treatments were adjusted to the Power Law, where an increase in the shear rate decreases the viscosity of the material, corresponding to a pseudoplastic behavior. The incorporation of hydrolyzed protein flour presented a significant effect on the value of n and Klp, increasing the viscosity with the increase in the percentage of inclusion of HPH. The models obtained for the prediction of the viscosity are adjusted to the changes in shear rate, temperature and humidity of the system.

Recoverable Extensional Flow of Polymer Melts and Its Relevance for Processing

While the uniaxial elongational viscosity is widely investigated, and its relevance for processing is described in the literature, much less has been published on the recoverable extensional flow of polymer melts. This paper presents a short overview of the dependencies of the recoverable elongation on the molecular structure of a polymer, and on some experimental parameters. Its main focus lies on the discussion of processing operations and applications that are largely affected by the elastic components of elongational flow. The recoverable portions of stretched films are considered, and the exploitation of the shrinkage of films, due to the recovery of frozen recoverable deformations, and its role for applications are addressed. The analysis of measurements of velocity fields in the entry region of a slit die and results on the determination of the recoverable elongation from uniaxial experiments, according to the literature, lead to the conclusion of dominant elastic extensions. Considering these facts, the assumptions for Cogswell’s widely used method of determining elongational viscosities under processing conditions from entrance flow are not realistic. As examples of a direct application of extrudate swell from short dies for processing, pelletizing and fused deposition modelling within additive manufacturing are addressed. The special features of extrudate swell from short dies, and uniaxial recoverable elongation for a polymer filled with rigid particles in comparison to an immiscible polymer blend, are presented and discussed.

The Formation of a Highly Oriented Structure and Improvement of Properties in PP/PA6 Polymer Blends during Extrusion-Stretching

During the “slit die extrusion-hot stretching” process, highly oriented polyamide 6 (PA6) dispersed phase was produced and retained in the polypropylene (PP) matrix directly. By adjusting the stretching forces, the PA6 spherical phase evolved into the ellipsoid, rod-like microfibril with a decreasing average diameter; then, the PA6 microfibrils broke. Moreover, the effects of the PA6 phases formed in the process of the microfibrillation on PP’s crystallization behaviors were studied systematically. As the stretching forces increased, the crystallization ability and orientation degree of PP crystals improved significantly. Differential scanning calorimetry and polarizing optical microscopy confirmed the formation of PP spherulite, fan-shaped lamellae and a transcrystalline layer under the induction of the PA6 phases with different morphology. In the PP/PA6 microfibrilar composites (MFCs), PP crystals showed smaller average size, more crystals and stronger interface adhesion due to more excellent heterogeneous nucleation ability of the PA6 microfibrils, which made contributions to the improvement of the melt elasticity responses and oxygen barrier properties of the PP/PA6 polymer blends.

Assessment of Piezoelectric Sensors for the Acquisition of Steady Melt Pressures in Polymer Extrusion

Piezoelectric sensors have made their way into polymer processing and rheometry applications, in particular when small pressure changes with very fast dynamics are to be measured. However, no validation of their use for steady shear rheometry is available in the literature. Here, a rheological slit die was designed and constructed to allow for the direct comparison of pressure data measured with conventional and piezoelectric transducers. The calibration of piezoelectric sensors is presented together with a methodology to correct the data from the inherent signal drift, which is shown to be temperature and pressure independent. Flow curves are measured for polymers showing different levels of viscoelasticity. Piezoelectric slit rheometry is validated and its advantage for the rheology of thermodegradable materials with viscosity below 100 Pa·s is highlighted.