The effect of temperature gradients on the sharkskin surface instability in polymer extrusion through a slit die

The sharkskin surface instability is commonly observed in the extrusion of polymer melts. We present a series of experiments in which a specifically designed rectangular slit die with insulated and independently heated sides and is used to induce precise temperature gradients across a flowing polyethylene melt. Our previous experiments demonstrated that the character of the surface distortions produced by the sharkskin instability was a function of the die wall temperature and therefore the extrudate had viscoelastic properties at the surface. In this paper, we explore the role of temperature and viscoelastic property gradients near the capillary wall. The amplitude of the sharkskin instability is quantified and plotted against apparent shear and extension rates. Analysis of the data demonstrates that the amplitude and frequency of the instability is independent of bulk temperature and temperature gradient and is dependent only on wall temperature. The data are normalized using a dimensionless Weissenberg number based on the extension rate to collapse the data collected over all temperatures and gradients onto a single master curve. We conclude with an example of a rectangular extrudate exhibiting varying surface roughness due to differential die heating and discuss the implications of our observations on the sharkskin surface instability mechanism and on commercial applications.