Polymer process simulation, built in
Flory-Huggins devolatilization, the Sanchez-Lacombe lattice-fluid EoS, and MWD-tracking polymerization reactors — the polymer thermodynamics an Aspen Polymers licence charges for, on one flowsheet.
Flory-Huggins solvent activity
The workhorse of polymer separations: a Flory-Huggins polymer-solvent activity model drives devolatilization, residual-monomer stripping and polymer drying on the standard flash path — the same solver every other unit op uses, not a bolted-on side calculation.
Sanchez-Lacombe lattice-fluid EoS
A multi-solvent Sanchez-Lacombe equation of state — density, activity coefficients and a VLE flash — for polymer/multi-solvent phase equilibrium, selectable as a property method on any flowsheet. Its EoS core is verified to machine precision against independent symbolic derivation.
Polymerization reactors with MWD tracking
Free-radical and step-growth polymerization in a CSTR or tubular (PFR) reactor, tracking conversion and the molecular-weight distribution by method-of-moments — the numbers a specialty-polymer plant actually reports (Mn, Mw, dispersity), not just a lumped extent of reaction.
Liquid-liquid gel phase split
The Flory-Huggins model also resolves the polymer-lean / polymer-rich (gel) liquid-liquid split — the phase behaviour behind precipitation, fractionation and the concentrated-solution end of a devolatilizer — wired straight into the same flash.
One data model, reactor to finishing
A polymer stream is the same object through the reactor, the devolatilizer, the melt line and the report — so a whole polymerization-plus-finishing train converges as one flowsheet, conserving every monomer atom, instead of three disconnected apps you copy numbers between.
Honest, cited, screening-grade
Every property is the model's own flash — Flory-Huggins interaction, Sanchez-Lacombe lattice-fluid, method-of-moments closure — with the bounds stated plainly on each showcase. The deterministic solver produces the numbers; this layer supplies the polymer physics, never an invented value.
Worked polymer flowsheets, one click away
Three solved flowsheets you can open, run and edit — a Flory-Huggins polystyrene devolatilizer, a continuous reactor chained into devolatilization and melt transfer, and a high-pressure LDPE polymerization.
Why this is different
In a legacy stack the polymer thermodynamics live behind a separate, expensive add-on, run apart from the process model. Here the Flory-Huggins activity, the Sanchez-Lacombe EoS and the reactor MWD share one data model with the simulator, so a polymerization or devolatilization step is an ordinary flowsheet — flash a polymer stream, strip its residual monomer, split a gel phase — that converges and conserves every monomer atom, not a side calculation you copy numbers out of.
Honest by design
- ✓Flory-Huggins covers the dominant binary real case rigorously — one polymer plus one volatile solvent/monomer (devolatilization, residual-monomer stripping, polymer drying) — plus the liquid-liquid gel-phase split, all on the standard flash path.
- ✓The Sanchez-Lacombe EoS core (density, activity coefficients) is validated to machine precision against independent symbolic derivation, and its VLE flash returns a finite, ideal-limit-correct activity coefficient; it is a lattice-fluid screening model, not a licensed polymer databank.
- ✓Reactor molecular-weight is tracked by method-of-moments (Mn/Mw/dispersity), not a full distributed population-balance MWD — the screening resolution a process study needs, honestly labelled.
- ✓Not built, and stated as such: a polymer-NRTL local-composition residual term, and polymer-melt PVT/rheology (viscosity, free-volume processing models) — a different, larger problem than the phase-equilibrium layer here.
- ✓The deterministic solver produces every conversion, flow and composition; this layer applies the cited polymer thermodynamics — it never invents a process number.
From monomer to finished polymer in one model
Pick Flory-Huggins or Sanchez-Lacombe on any polymer stream, drop a polymerization reactor and a devolatilizer on the canvas, and solve the whole finishing line as one flowsheet.
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