This book is designed to fulfill a dual role. On the one hand it
provides a description of the rheological behavior of molten poly- mers.
On the other, it presents the role of rheology in melt processing
operations. The account of rheology emphasises the underlying principles
and presents results, but not detailed deriva- tions of equations. The
processing operations are described qualita- tively, and wherever
possible the role of rheology is discussed quantitatively. Little
emphasis is given to non-rheological aspects of processes, for example,
the design of machinery. The audience for which the book is intended is
also dual in nature. It includes scientists and engineers whose work in
the plastics industry requires some knowledge of aspects of rheology.
Examples are the polymer synthetic chemist who is concerned with how a
change in molecular weight will affect the melt viscosity and the
extrusion engineer who needs to know the effects of a change in
molecular weight distribution that might result from thermal degra-
dation. The audience also includes post-graduate students in polymer
science and engineering who wish to acquire a more extensive background
in rheology and perhaps become specialists in this area. Especially for
the latter audience, references are given to more detailed accounts of
specialized topics, such as constitutive relations and process
simulations. Thus, the book could serve as a textbook for a graduate
level course in polymer rheology, and it has been used for this purpose.
