X-ray particle tracking velocimetry for steady-state rheological characterization: Case study of a complex polymer melt flow in material extrusion additive manufacturing

We introduce x-ray particle tracking velocimetry (XPTV) as a promising method to quantitatively resolve the velocity field and associated rheological information of the polymer melt flow within the nozzle of a fused filament fabrication (FFF) printer. Employing tungsten powder as tracer particles embedded within a polymer filament, we investigate melt flow dynamics through an aluminum nozzle in a custom setup comparable to commercial printers. The velocity profiles obtained via XPTV reveal significant deviations from a classical Newtonian flow, highlighting complex heterogeneous and nonisothermal behavior within the melt. From these measurements, we determine the local infinitesimal strain rate tensor and correlate flow-induced non-Newtonian effects to spatially varying temperature distributions, reflecting incomplete thermal homogenization within the nozzle. We complement the experiments with computational fluid dynamics simulations of the flow inside the printing nozzle, incorporating filament melting through an enthalpy–porosity formulation and treating the air–polymer melt interface using a two-phase approach. The simulated velocity profiles agree closely with the XPTV measurements across the investigated operating conditions, supporting the experimental interpretation. Our findings demonstrate the capability of XPTV to quantify both velocity fields and rheological properties, underscoring its potential as a tool for investigating opaque polymer melt flows in additive manufacturing, industrial processing, and rheology. To our knowledge, this is the first application of XPTV to polymer melt rheology. It enables measurements that are inaccessible to conventional optical methods.