Course description

The objective of the course is to give Engineering students a working understanding of the salient features of polymeric materials, including structure, synthesis, rheological properties and processing. This course will cover the application and the analysis of key processing operations for polymeric materials, namely extrusion, injection molding and calendaring. Prior to this, the structure of polymeric materials and their rheological behavior and characterization will be reviewed, as they relate to processing. As part of the course, the students undertake an individual research project of computational (simulation and analysis of some polymer processing operation, possibly outside those covered in the class) or experimental (measurement of an important property of a polymer system, such as viscosity or glass transition temperature) nature. The final grade is the result of a final exam, a project and eight homework assignments. The course is open to Engineering students outside CHE, with demonstrated competence in Fluid Mechanics or Computational Methods. Such students might undertake a project related to polymer processing from the point of view of their particular discipline.

Course Pre-Requisites: None

Course Learning Outcomes

1. Explain glass transition in polymers and the techniques by which it is measured.
2. Explain the main methods used for polymer synthesis.
3. Interpret the results of rheological measurements and use the underlying theory.
4. Describe the processes involved in polymer processing operations.
5. Carry out literature survey on relevant topics and present their results.

Course Outline

In this course students will learn about: classification, properties and structure of polymers; glass transition temperature and crystallization; molecular weight distributions; polymer synthesis; rheology; processing of polymers, including extrusion and molding.