Study of shear and elongational flow of solidifying polypropylene melt for low deformation rates

An experimental technique was developed to determine the strain-rate in a tensile specimen. Then one can calculate the transient isothermal elongational viscosity. Both shear and elongational viscosities were measured to study the effect of shear and elongational fields on the flow properties. The comparison between these viscosities shows that the onset of rapid viscosity growth as crystallization solidification proceeds occurs at about the same value of time at very small deformation rates (0.0028 and 0.0047 $s^{-1}$). The comparison of these measured viscosities as functions of shear and elongational Hencky strains also reveals that the onset of rapid viscosity growths starts at critical Hencky strain values. The behaviour of steady shear viscosity as function of temperature sweep was also explored at three different low shear rates. Finally, the influence of changing oscillatory frequencies and strain rates was also investigated.