Quantification of polymer degradation during melt dripping of thermoplastic polymers

This work reports measurement of temperatures of the melting drops in the previously designed and presented melt dripping experiments of thermoplastic polymers. A simple heat transfer model has been used to compute the surface temperatures of the polymer sample at various furnace temperatures and thus the temperatures of the molten drops dripping from the melting surface. The model has been validated by experimental results. The temperatures of the molten drops could help in predicting the degree of degradation in a polymer during melt dripping. By conducting thermogravimetric analysis of both the polymers and their molten drops, a degree of degradation could also be predicted. The values obtained from both approaches have been compared in order to understand the melt dripping/degradation behaviour of polymers.