Abstract：Reactive extrusion involves not only flow behavior, mass and heat transfer in the extrusion process, but also the coupling of reaction and extrusion. The flow behavior of polymer melt/solution in extruder should be investigated in order to control the molecular weight and its distribution. Theoretical calculation has been widely used to optimize reactive extrusion process, which contains two main categories: the approaches based on chemical engineering and the others based on continuum mechanics. The formers are benefit to operation optimization, while the latters are helpful for design optimization. The developments of these two approaches are reviewed in this paper and main trends of simulation for reactive extrusion are also discussed.
