Extrusion of rubber: Prediction of die swell

This paper outlines a technique which employs a medial axis transformation of the die exit geometry, together with a viscoelastic flow simulation of simple geometries to predict the resultant die swell, The flow simulation presented here gives good agreement with other programs. Subsequent comparison of practical and predicted die swell then enables die design modification, This prediction works on relatively inexpensive hardware making it a potentially useful industrial tool.