An Innovative Method of Die Design and Evaluation of
Flow Balance for Thermoplastics Extrusion Profiles
Abbas Zolfaghari, Amir Hossein Behravesh, Ehsan Shakouri, Ehsan Soury
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
In this article, a computational and experimental
method for flow balancing of a U-shaped die profile
with nonuniform thicknesses is presented. The ap-
proach was to implement a flow restricting mechanism
along the melt flow path. A parametric study based on
the restrictor dimensions was carried out to attain a
preliminary optimal design. Simulations were per-
formed using Fluent software to analyze the flow ve-
locity at the die exit. Experimental study was then car-
ried out at various restrictor positions for the purpose
of attaining a desirable flow balance. The velocity at
various segments of the die exit was measured utiliz-
ing an innovative procedure by implementing the ‘‘sep-
arating blades.’’ Experimental findings were compared
with those of simulations which showed an acceptable
agreement. The results suggest that a flexible die can
be designed to achieve a flow balance under various
processing conditions. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 49:1793–1799,
2009. ª 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers
INTRODUCTION
One of the main tasks in design of an extrusion die is
‘‘flow balancing.’’ It means evenly distributing polymeric
melt along the flow channel so that the melt is delivered
from the die exit with a uniform velocity. Flow balancing
is vital, because an unbalanced flow produces a distorted
product having residual stresses [1, 2]. Complex cross
sections, flow properties of polymeric melt (e.g., viscoe-
lasticity), and operating conditions, such as temperature
and speed, could further complicate the die design proce-
dure [3]. Except for some simple shapes such as circular
dies, it is very difficult to design a die that can properly
operate over a wide range of operating conditions and for
various polymers [4]. Winter and Fritz [5] presented a
theoretical procedure for designing coat-hanger dies with
a circular or rectangular cross section of distributing
manifold. Their procedure could presumably predict mate-
rial independence of the flow distribution, but it was not
found to be achieved in the practice [6].
Correspondence to: A.H. Behravesh; e-mail: amirhb@modares.ac.ir
DOI 10.1002/pen.21421
Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).
V
C 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers
POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE—-2009
Most cases of the die design practice involve trial-and-
error processes that rely exclusively on the experience of
the designers. In some cases, a complete redesign may
have been required which is a time consuming and expen-
sive process leading to financial losses in a competitive
market [7]. Currently, computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) is being applied as a tool to shorten this trial-and-
error cycle, although the designer experience still plays a
key role to achieve an optimal design. The new tools can
handle nonlinear behavior, nonisothermal flow, and differ-
ent rheological models of molten plastic. Even if the flow
behavior is modeled accurately, it does not necessarily
entail that the final computational results will have the
same accuracy. This is because the phenomena such as
extrudate swell, draw down, and cooling strongly affects
the shape and size of the final product [4]. Using either
designer experience or simulation tools, the process of
flow balancing is an iterative one [8]. The cost of the pre-
liminary tests and corrections of a profile die may be as
much as 10–50% of the total cost [9]. Therefore, design
of a die with the least corrections is a challenge for the
die design engineers.
To date, some works have been carried out on flow
balancing which are mainly divided into two main groups
as follows: the balance of the flow on (i) sheet and (ii)
profile dies. The details on theoretical base for designing
sheet dies is given in Refs. 10–13. However, due to the
variety of profile shapes, there is not a specific formula
for designing the profile dies. Almost in all cases, a finite
element analysis coupled with an optimization process is
applied for designing a profile die [1–3, 14, 15].
PROBLEM STATEMENT
As a general rule in profile extrusion, uniform wall
thickness must be seriously considered [4, 9]. Nonuniform
wall thickness causes an unbalanced flow through the sec-
tions. This is because the thinner sections present greater
resistance against the flow that leads to its diversion to-
ward the thicker sections. However, in some structural
application, there is a need to employ thicker sections to
endure the applied load. In these cases, equating the
thickness of the sections is, thus, not cost-effective since
it produces a heavier and more expensive product. In this
article, a new approach is presented for flow balancing of
an uneven thickness U-shaped profile with the specifica-
tions given in Fig. 1. As indicated, the side walls are thin-
ner than the middle one. The middle segment is made
thicker as it is assumed to play the main role in bearing
the applied load.
DIE DESIGN PROCEDURE
Parametric Design
For the designated profile, in this research work, a
modular die was designed and manufactured with the con-
figuration shown in Fig. 2.
The designed die consists of the three parts as follows:
upper-half, lower-half, and an insert bolted to the lower-
half which is aimed to distribute the flowing melt to the
desired shape (called ‘‘distributor’’ thereafter in this arti-
cle). The transition zone of the die is a loft of 52 mm di-
ameter (same as the diameter of the adaptor connected to
the extruder head) at one end and a rectangular section
with a dimension of 35 3 70 mm at the other end. This
rectangular section remains unchanged as extended to the
die exit. This design can yield the U-shaped profiles with
various wall thicknesses, via changing the dimensions of
the distributor.
While the above design is not yet balanced for the
desired profile (different thicknesses), it could be still
unbalanced for the uniform thickness profile because of
higher tendency of melt to flow at the center of the chan-
nel than the sides. Hence, there is a need to modify this
design to achieve a balanced flow. Therefore, it is pro-
posed that a restrictor bar be designed and implemented
at a location along the flow at the thicker section (Fig.
3a). Since the flow tends to flow mostly through a less
resisting section, which is the thicker one, this restrictor
could impose a resistance to compensate the resistance
differences at the sections. To achieve a balanced flow,
the height of the restrictor, H, (Fig. 3b) which is an index
FIG. 1. The U-shaped profile cross section (dimensions are in mm).
1794 POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE—-2009
FIG. 2. A schematic of the configuration of proposed U-shaped profile
die.
of resistance against the flow at the middle segment must
be determined. When the height is too great, the resist-
ance will be too high at the middle section and most of
the flow is expected to deviate toward the side walls.
When the height is too low or close to zero, in contrast,
most of the flow tends to flow toward the middle seg-
ment. It is expected that at an appropriate height, a bal-
ance of flow will be achievable. To attain an optimum
design, in addition to the height of the restrictor bar, some
other dimensions of the designed die were also considered
as the parametric variables to be optimized. These dimen-
sions are attributed to the distributor (L, a) as illustrated
in Fig. 3c. The purpose was to obtain the optimum values
for these three parameters in the simulation step which
will be finally used for the manufacture of the die.
Simulation
As the first step, simulation analyses were performed
using Fluent software to evaluate the flow behavior
through the die channel. The variable dimensional param-
eters were as follows: distributor length, distributor angle,
and restrictor height. The three levels of the variables
used for simulation are given in Table 1. Transition zone
length, C1 ¼ 50 mm, and distance between the end of the
transition zone and the restrictor, C2 ¼ 20 mm, were
assumed to remain constant (Fig. 4). Therefore, a total of
27 simulation runs were performed. The desired output
was velocity profile at the die exit. The purpose was to
find dimensions which could produce a better balance of
the flow, to be used for the manufacture of the die.
To quantify, and thus evaluate the flow balance, the
die exit section was nominally split into four zones as
illustrated in Fig. 5. The purpose was to define an objec-
tive function so that it could represent the flow balance
based on the difference in flow velocities of the four seg-
ments. The following objective function is then proposed:
DOI 10.1002/pen
 FIG. 3. (a) The proposed final configuration of the uneven wall thicknesses U-shaped profile die, (b) dimen-
sions of the restrictor, and (c) distributor (dimensions are in mm).

Pn

vave Þ2
i¼1 ðvi
eled. Figure 6 shows a sample of the modeled flow field
j¼ (1) (cavity) with the split exit.
nðn
1Þv2ave
The polymer used for the simulations and the experi-
mentations was high-density polyethylene (HDPE) having
where vi, vave, and n are average velocity of ith zone, total a bulk density of 930 kg/m3 and a heat capacity (Cp) of
average velocity, and the number of divisions (or seg- 2800 J/kg K [16]. The viscosity property of the material
ments), respectively. This function has been arranged so was defined based on the power law equation, g ¼ kc_n
1 ,
that it could only assume the values between 0 and 1. where k and n are consistency and power indexes, respec-
The extreme value of 1 is obtained when whole flow tively. These values were measured at 1708C by a capil-
passes through one segment only. This represents the lary rheometer (Rheometric Scientific Acer 2000)
‘‘perfect unbalance’’ state. The value of zero is obtained equipped with a 1 mm diameter capillary die with a L-to-
when the all differences in velocities are null, which rep- D ratio of 20 and a flat entry. The obtained values were
resents a ‘‘perfect balance’’ state. On the other hand, the
objective function gives only positive values. Thus, the
minimum value of the function will be zero, which repre-
TABLE 1. The levels of the parametric dimensions used in the
sents the state of ‘‘perfect balance.’’ It concludes that simulation.
when minimizing the objective function, in fact, the opti-
mum condition or a balanced flow is sought. a (degree) 45 67.5 90
L (mm) 60 80 100
For the purpose of simulation and due to the shape
H (mm) 2 4 6
symmetry, only one-half of the die channels were mod-

DOI 10.1002/pen POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE—-2009 1795

 FIG. 6. The image illustrating one-half of the flow fields (cavity).

value there is need for further simulation at a higher

height. Therefore, simulation was performed at the next
level of the restrictor height, H ¼ 8 mm, and at the opti-
mal values of L and a. This resulted in a value of 0.4825
for the objective function which reveals that the minimum
value lies between the height of 6 and 8 mm. Figure 7
FIG. 4. Constant dimensions of the designed die. illustrates the obtained objective function values versus
the corresponding restrictor height. Considering the above
results, in manufacturing the die, the restrictor bar was
k ¼ 28,632 Pa sn and n ¼ 0.331. Following boundary implemented so that its height could be varied from 0 to
conditions were assumed: uniform inlet velocity of 1 mm/ 10 mm. The manufactured die allowed fine adjustment of
s (7.12 kg/h), outlet pressure of 0.1 MPa (atmospheric), the restrictor height, via a screw rotation transferred to a
inlet temperature of 1708C, and no slip and adiabatic con-
ditions at die walls. TABLE 2. Values of objective functions obtained from simulation runs
The simulation results are given in Table 2. The analy- at various die parameters.
sis of the models showed that the die with specifications
of L ¼ 60 mm, a ¼ 908, and H ¼ 6 mm resulted in the L (mm) a (degree) H (mm) C ¼ u 3 1000
minimum value for the objective function C ¼ u 3 1000
60 90 2 3.8769
¼ 0.0988. (For the purpose of magnification the objective 60 90 4 1.7069
function values were multiplied by 1000). The results 60 90 6 0.0988
show that at the optimal values of L and a, the value of 60 67.5 2 4.6091
C decreases monotonically from 3.8769 to 0.0988 as the 60 67.5 4 3.5359
60 67.5 6 3.917
restrictor height increases from 2 to 6 mm. Although the
60 45 2 10.054
value of the objective function is very small (0.0988) at 60 45 4 6.0719
the height of 6 mm, nevertheless to obtain the minimum 60 45 6 5.6387
80 90 2 5.2282
80 90 4 4.68
80 90 6 2.4117
80 67.5 2 9.9541
80 67.5 4 5.2893
80 67.5 6 4.6041
80 45 2 7.3688
80 45 4 12.0732
80 45 6 11.9341
100 90 2 5.9887
100 90 4 3.7711
100 90 6 3.7681
100 67.5 2 6.9922
100 67.5 4 7.4162
100 67.5 6 4.4337
100 45 2 4.9048
100 45 4 12.7252
100 45 6 8.3282
FIG. 5. Schematic of the die exit segments.

1796 POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE—-2009 DOI 10.1002/pen

FIG. 7. Plot of objective function versus the restrictor height at optimal
L and a obtained from simulation.
linear motion, while performing experimentation.
The mechanism of the height adjustment and the picture
of the manufactured die are shown in Figs. 8 and 9,
respectively.
EXPERIMENTATION
A laboratory-made counter rotating twin-screw ex-
truder with a diameter of 62.5 mm and a L-to-D ratio of
FIG. 8. Design of the mechanism for varying the restrictor height.
DOI 10.1002/pen
FIG. 9. The manufactured U-shaped profile die.
22 was utilized for extruding the profile. The rotational
speed was adjusted accordingly to yield a flow rate as
close as possible to that of the input value in the simula-
tion runs. Therefore, Zone 1 and die were set at 160 and
1708C, respectively. The temperatures of adaptor and
Zones 2, 3 were set at 1908C. Figure 10 illustrates a sche-
matic of the extrusion line and the different thermal
zones.
The major challenge in the experiments was to mea-
sure velocity at the four segments of the die exit. One
proposed method is to make the flow split as it exits the
die. A practical method is to implement blades at the seg-
ments boundaries. The blades should be thin and sharp
enough as not to exert too much a shear force to disturb
the flow and, thus, not to produce erroneous data. To hold
and fix the blades in the exact positions, a fixture was
designed in a positional tolerance of 60.05 mm. Figure
11 shows the blades and the manufactured fixture con-
nected to the die face.
The split extrudates were cooled using two air com-
pressors to prevent them sticking together after they are
separated apart by the blades. Five sets of extrudates
were collected in an interval of 4 min. Average velocity
of each zone, vi was calculated using the following
relationship:
mi
vi ¼ (2)
r  Ai  t
where mi is the average mass of samples obtained from
the experiments through the time period of t ¼ 4 min. Ai
and r are the area of ith zone and the melt density,
respectively. The density of the melt was determined by
Archimedes method. The mass of samples was measured
POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE—-2009 1797
 FIG. 10. A schematic of extrusion line used for the experiment.

using a scale (Adam Equipment Co WA120) with a preci-
sion of 0.0001 g. After calculating the velocity value of
each segment, the corresponding value of the objective
function was calculated using Eq. 1. The restrictor height
was then varied in 1 mm interval to obtain sets of objec-
tive function value. These values were then used to obtain
the condition of optimum balance by seeking its minimum
value.
Although, it is obvious that the objective function
yields a very low value at the restrictor height of 7 mm,
for further tuning, the optimum position can be derived
by differentiation of the above equation:
d
exp
¼ 0 ) ðHopt Þexp ¼ 6:916 mm; ð
opt Þexp ¼ 0:0083
dH
(4)

Repeating above stages for the data obtained from the

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 3 shows the average velocity of each segment
and the corresponding objective function value at each
restrictor height. It is observed that, due to the symmetry,
there is very little difference between average velocities
of Zones 1 and 4 and also Zones 2 and 3. Also, the value
of the objective function decreases as the restrictor height
increases up to 7 mm. It then tends to increase as the
restrictor height further increases to 8 mm. The relation-
ship can be clearly observed when plotting the objective
function value vs. the restrictor height, as illustrated in
Fig. 12. The curve can be fitted by a second-order polyno-
mial equation as follows:

exp ¼ 1:1362H 2
15:7162H þ 54:3559
simulation runs yields the following equation and the cor-
responding optimum point:

sim ¼ 0:249H 2
3:2938H þ 10:8985 (5)
d
sim
¼ 0 ) ðHopt Þsim ¼ 6:614 mm; ð
opt Þsim ¼ 0:0058
dH
(6)
It is seen that the optimum value obtained from the
simulation results are in a good agreement with that of
the experimental results. The difference in height is about
0.3 mm or less than 5%. Also the values of the objective
function, obtained from the experiments and simulations,
are both minute and very close to zero. Hence, the simu-
(3)
lation procedure can be used to achieve a die design with
an acceptable uniformity in flow. The design and optimi-
zation procedure was also found to be an effective
method to initiate an optimum die design. Figure 13
shows the extrudate produced by the designed die via
adjustment of the restrictor height at 7 mm. The observed
small deformations are caused by swelling and cooling at

TABLE 3. Average velocities at zones and the corresponding objective

functions at various restrictor heights.

H (mm) v1 (mm/s) v2 (mm/s) v3 (mm/s) v4 (mm/s) C

4 0.5261 0.7420 0.7347 0.5209 9.6707

5 0.5558 0.7132 0.7061 0.5503 5.1337
6 0.5955 0.6958 0.6889 0.5895 2.0221
7 0.6416 0.6347 0.6284 0.6352 0.0179
8 0.6871 0.6053 0.5993 0.6803 1.3453
FIG. 11. Blades and the fixture connected to the die face.

1798 POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE—-2009 DOI 10.1002/pen

 optimize the design. The second stage was to validate the
optimization procedure via experimentation. Experimental
results clearly showed the pronounced and effective func-
tion of the restrictor bar in balancing the flow. Also the
heights of the restrictor obtained in the experiment and
that of simulation were found to be in a good agreement.

REFERENCES

1. E. Soury, A.H. Behravesh, H. Ghasemi, and A. Zolfaghari,

J. Reinforc. Plast. Compos., DOI: 10.1177/0731684408089507
(in press).
2. J.M. Nobrega, O.S. Carneiro, P.J. Oliviera, and F.T. Pinho,
FIG. 12. Plot of objective function value versus the restrictor height ‘‘Flow Balance Optimization of Profile Extrusion Dies,’’ in
obtained from experimentation. 18th Annual Conference of the Polymer Processing Society,
PPS-18, Guimaraes, June 16–20 (2002).
3. H.J. Ettinger, J. Sienz, and J.F.T. Pittman, Struct. Multidisc.
room temperature. In a fully implemented extrusion sys-
Optim., 27, 1 (2004).
tem, utilizing a vacuum calibrator is necessary to size the
4. C. Rauwendaal, Polymer Extrusion, Hanser Publishers,
extrudate. No waviness, layer separation, or deviation was
Munich (2001).
observed along the extrudate, thus indicting an acceptable
5. H.H. Winter and H.G. Fritz, Polym. Eng. Sci., 26, 543
balanced flow.
(1986).
6. J. Sienz, S.J. Bates, and J.F.T. Pittman, Finite Elem. Anal.
CONCLUSIONS Des., 42, 430 (2006).
7. A. Munout, J.L. Mead, S.A. Orroth, and R.G. Stacer, ‘‘Use
In this article, a novel method was presented for design
of Stereolithography for Extrusion Dies,’’ in Proceedings of
of the profile extrusion dies with uneven wall thicknesses. SPE Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC), New York,
For flow balancing, a restrictor bar was implemented to May 2–6, (1999).
apply a desirable resistance against the excessive flow at 8. H.M. Metwally and M. Landon, ‘‘Die Balancing: Coupling
the thicker section via adjusting its height. The first stage Flow Simulation, Shape Deformation, & Optimization,’’ in
of the proposed approach was to optimize the design via Proceedings of SPE Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC),
flow simulation and introducing an objective function to Charlotte, May 7–11 (2006).
9. W. Michaeli, Extrusion Dies for Plastics and Rubber,
Hanser Publishers, Munich (1992).
10. K. Ito, Jpn Plast., 4, 27 (1970).
11. M.B. Cheijfec, Plast. Massy, 12, 31 (1973).
12. Y. Matsubara, Polym. Eng. Sci., 19, 169 (1979).
13. Y. Matsubara, Polym. Eng. Sci., 20, 716 (1980).
14. M.K. Alam, C. Tzoganakis, and J. Perdikoulias, ‘‘Effect of
Rhelogy and Die Design on Flow Balancing of Profile
Extrusion Dies,’’ in Proceedings of SPE Annual Technical
Conference (ANTEC), Boston, May 1–5 (2005).
15. P. Hurez and P.A. Tanguy, Polym. Eng. Sci., 36, 628
(1996).
16. D.W. Vankrevelen, Properties of Polymers, Elsevier Science
FIG. 13. Final profile produced at the restrictor height of 7 mm. Publishers B.V., Amsterdam (1990).

DOI 10.1002/pen POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE—-2009 1799