Study and modeling of heat transfer during the solidification of semi-crystalline polymers

Semi-crystalline polymers are materials whose behavior during their cooling is difficult to model because of the strong coupling between the crystallization, heat transfer, pressure and shear. Thanks to two original apparatus we study solidification of such a polymer without shear. Firstly the comparison between experimental results and a numerical model will permit to validate crystallization kinetic for cooling rate reachable by DSC, The second experiment makes it possible to analyze solidification for high cooling rate, corresponding to some manufacturing processes. It appears that crystallization has an influence on the thermal contact resistance. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.