Transport Phenomena

The field of transport phenomena provides the basis for modeling in plastics rheology and processing. Modeling of a system, whether it is a rheometer or an actual process, often begins with a dimensional analysis of the system, which provides insight into the meaningful parameters that govern the system or process. The resulting dimensionless groups or numbers, in conjunction with experiments and models, can help the engineer determine significant conditions or effects, such as inertia, viscous heating, and if dealing with a process, scale a pilot or model of the process to industrial dimensions.