Abstract: Slotted and stepped screw rotors were designed in order to study the effect of rotor configuration on the mixing performance. Numerical simulation was carried out on the mixing sections of the three rotors using the polymer processing analysis software Polyflow, and the mixing performance of the slotted, stepped, and common screw rotors was compared. It was concluded that the slotted screw rotor had the best dispersive and distribution mixing performance, the dispersive mixing performance of the stepped screw rotor was between the common and the slotted screw rotor. The dispersion of materials in the slotted screw rotor depended more strongly on the stretching than the other two rotors.

Key words: two-rotor continuous mixer, rotor configuration, mixing performance, numerical simulation