Abstract
The sensitivity of the product to the ongoing sinusoidal disturbances of the process has been investigated in the film casting of viscoelastic polymer fluids using frequency response analysis. As demonstrated for fiber spinning process (Jung et al., 2002; Devereux and Denn, 1994), this frequency response analysis is useful for examining the process sensitivity and the stability of extensional deformation processes including film casting. The results of the present study reveal that the amplification ratios or gains of the process/product variables such as the cross-sectional area at the take-up to disturbances exhibit resonant peaks along the frequency regime as expected for the systems having hyperbolic characteristics with spilt boundary conditions (Friedly, 1972). The effects on the sensitivity results of two important parameters of film casting, i.e., the fluid viscoelasticity and the aspect ratio of the casting equipment have been scrutinized. It turns out that depending on the extension thinning or thickening nature of the fluid, increasing viscoelasticity results in enlargement or reduction of the sensitivity, respectively. As regards the aspect ratio, it has been found that an optimum value exists making the system least sensitive. The present study also confirms that the frequency response method produces results that corroborate well those by other methods like linear stability Analysis and transient solutions response. (Iyengar and Co, 1996; Silagy et al., 1996; Lee and Hyun, 2001).