The Effects of Cooling Method on Final Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Polyethylene Tanks Manufactured by Rotational Molding

Due to the drought and lack of water resources, many efforts have been made to store water properly recently. Using of multilayer polyethylene tanks is an efficient measure in order to solve this problem and it has received considerable attention. Proper manufacturing conditions will greatly improve the strength of these tanks and their applications.

In this study, the effect of cooling process on the final properties of polyethylene tanks prepared by rotational molding method is investigated. Three different cooling methods comprised of cooling with water, cooling by air, and quiescent cooling is selected and their mechanical and thermal properties were investigated.

The results of the tensile test show that as the tank is cooled faster, the elongation at break will be higher. It is also demonstrated that the air cooling method results in the lower elongation at break. The results of the thermal properties show that higher cooling rate creates thicker crystals in the fragment which requires higher energy to overcome these thick crystals. According to the results of the thermal properties and using the softening temperature test it is found that by increasing the cooling rate, the softening temperature will be increased as well which will improve the application of the tank in high temperature conditions. Melt flow rate and density tests are also performed to confirm the results of mechanical and thermal properties, respectively. Charpy impact test is performed at ambient temperature to confirm mechanical behavior induced by crystal structure. All in all, cooling by water performs better than other methods in terms of mechanical and thermal properties.