Wilczyński Krzysztof, Buziak Kamila, Wilczyński Adam
The Faculty of Mechanical and Industrial Engineeering, Warsaw University of Technology, 02-524 Warsaw, Poland.
PolymerSoft, 85-063 Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Materials (Basel). 2025 Aug 28;18(17):4042. doi: 10.3390/ma18174042.
Wood-plastic composites (WPCs) are polymeric materials, usually thermoplastic, filled with wood flour or fibers. They are relatively durable and stiff and resistant to water. They are also, importantly, relatively cheap compared to materials with similar properties. The WPCs market has grown significantly in recent years, mainly thanks to the increasing construction and automotive markets. Currently, the global WPCs market is forecasted to reach about USD 15 billion by 2030, increasing at an impressive compound annual increase rate of about 12% until 2030. There are some review articles on WPCs written from many different points of view, e.g., the type of materials used (polymers, fillers, auxiliaries), the method of manufacturing and processing, processing properties (thermal and rheological) and functional properties, methods of designing composite products and designing (modeling) forming processes. In this article, we will summarize these different points of view and will present a thorough literature review of rheology and material processing, and more specifically, the modeling of WPCs processing. This work will be presented in relation to state-of-the-art research in the field of modeling the processing of other polymeric materials, i.e., standard (neat) polymers and polymer blends. The WPCs' processing is significantly different from that of standard plastics due to the differences in thermo-rheological properties, diverse structures, etc. So far, the global WPCs processing models have only been developed for both gravity-fed and starve-fed single-screw extrusion. The models for twin-screw extrusion, both co-rotating and counter-rotating, as well as for injection molding, have still not been developed. WPCs show a yield stress and wall slip when extruding, which must be considered when modeling the process. As the slippage on the screw and barrel grows, the process throughput and pressure diminish, but as the slippage on the die grows, the throughput grows and the pressure diminish. As the yield stress in the screw grows, the process throughput and pressure grow, whereas as the yield stress in the die grows, the throughput diminishes and the pressure grows.
木塑复合材料（WPC）是一种聚合材料，通常为热塑性材料，填充有木粉或纤维。它们相对耐用、坚硬且防水。重要的是，与具有相似性能的材料相比，它们相对便宜。近年来，木塑复合材料市场显著增长，这主要得益于建筑和汽车市场的不断扩大。目前，预计到2030年全球木塑复合材料市场将达到约150亿美元，到2030年将以约12%的惊人复合年增长率增长。有一些从许多不同角度撰写的关于木塑复合材料的综述文章，例如所使用材料的类型（聚合物、填料、助剂）、制造和加工方法、加工性能（热性能和流变性能）以及功能性能、复合产品设计方法和成型工艺设计（建模）。在本文中，我们将总结这些不同的观点，并对流变学和材料加工，更具体地说，对木塑复合材料加工建模进行全面的文献综述。这项工作将结合其他聚合材料加工建模领域的最新研究进行介绍，即标准（纯）聚合物和聚合物共混物。由于热流变性能、结构多样性等方面的差异，木塑复合材料的加工与标准塑料有显著不同。到目前为止，全球木塑复合材料加工模型仅针对重力进料和饥饿进料单螺杆挤出开发。双螺杆挤出模型，包括同向旋转和反向旋转的，以及注塑模型仍未开发。木塑复合材料在挤出时表现出屈服应力和壁面滑移，在对该过程进行建模时必须考虑这些因素。随着螺杆和机筒上的滑移增加，过程产量和压力会降低，但随着模头上的滑移增加，产量会增加而压力会降低。随着螺杆中的屈服应力增加，过程产量和压力会增加，而随着模头中的屈服应力增加，产量会降低而压力会增加。
