The Rheological Properties of Particulate-Filled Thermoplastics in New Reduced Structural Parameters

The article presents the results of a study of the rheological characteristics of particulate-filled polymer composite materials (PFPCMs) based on LDPE and glass beads of ShSO-30 grade in a wide temperature range. For the first time, the rheological properties of PFPCMs are considered from the standpoint of constructing dispersed systems of different structure types (RS, LFS, MFS-1, MFS-2, and HFS) in terms of generalized (a_av, Θ, B, M, and S_f) and reduced parameters (a_av/d, Θ/B, and Θ/S_f). For the first time, the dependences of PFPCM viscosity on the new reduced parameters are presented, and rheological equations are proposed to describe the viscosity of PFPCM melts for all types of dispersed structures, which allow targeted selection of processing methods. This approach to describing the structure and rheological properties of PFPCMs can be extended to dispersions with almost any polymer matrices and dispersed fillers, which makes it possible to compare their rheological properties with each other in the reduced structure parameters.