Correlating polymer parameters to the entire molecular weight distribution: Application to the melt index

A method that takes into account the entire molecular weight distribution (MWD) for the prediction of polymer point properties and/or indexes is presented. The method is based on the convolution of the polymer mass molecular weight distribution and an empirical kernel function. Thus, the problem of relating the polymers properties to the MWD is reduced to the estimation of this empirical function. The proposed methodology is able to successfully predict melt indexes (MI) of a set of poly-(propylene) samples.