Computational simulation of Acrylamide and Acrylic Acid reaction by free-radical copolymerization in different reactor configurations and thermal conditions

Abstract

This study simulates the free-radical copolymerization of acrylamide and acrylic acid. The simulations were carried out for different reactor configurations and thermal conditions. Moreover, the final copolymer microstructure was predicted by using mathematical simulations based on first principles. Although there are a great number of publications about the modelling of polymer reactions, this work aims to estimate the final copolymer microstructure at the end of conversion using a method with lower computational efforts. Those values will determine important properties, among others, physical and chemical behaviours in later copolymer applications. A study of how natural disturbances affect the copolymer properties has been analyzed too. Finally, a controller was implemented to control the temperature reaction as the input variable.