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Updated: Dec 15, 2025

Cooling Rate Dependent Ellipsometry Measurements to Determine the Dynamics of Thin Glassy Films
Published on: January 26, 2016
Non-Isothermal Crystallisation Kinetics of Polypropylene at High Cooling Rates and Comparison to the Continuous
Jonathan Alms1, Christian Hopmann1, Jian Wang1,2
1Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV), RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
Abstract:
The modelling of the correlation between pressure, specific volume and temperature (pvT) of polymers is highly important for applications in the polymer processing of semi-crystalline thermoplastics, especially in injection moulding. In injection moulding, the polymer experiences a wide range of cooling rates, for example, 60 °C/min near the centre of the part and up to 3000 °C/min near the mould walls. The cooling rate has a high influence on the pvT behaviour, as was shown in the continuous two-domain pvT model (CTD). This work examined the Hoffman-Lauritzen nucleation and growth theory used in the modified Hammami model for extremely high cooling rates (up to 300,000 °C/min) by means of Flash differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) measurements. The results were compared to those of the empirical continuous two-domain pvT model. It is shown that the Hammami model is not suitable to predict the crystallisation kinetics of polypropylene at cooling rates above 600 °C/min, but that the continuous two-domain pvT model is well able to predict crystallisation temperatures at high cooling rates.
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