Evaluation of the effect of twin-screw extrusionparameters on the tensile stress-strainproperties of polyamide 11 nanocomposites

Abstract

Polyamide 11 nanocomposites were prepared by melt processing using a co-rotating Leistritz twin screw extruder. The processing conditions used during twin screw compounding have a significant impact on the mechanical properties of polyamide 11 nanocomposites. In this study, the effects of nanoclay loading and processing conditions on the short-term mechanical properties of the nanocomposites were investigated. Moreover, the present study was designed to try and identify the optimal combination of factors by using Design of Experiment (DOE) approach. The responses measured were the ultimate tensile strength; strain at break and strength at yield of polyamide 11 nanocomposites. The tensile testing results show that significant improvement was achieved by changing the processing conditions. Furthermore, the influence of processing conditions on the short-term mechanical properties of polyamide 11 nanocomposites was established, the data generated by MINITAB® was used to carry out statistical analysis on the experimental trends recorded.