PDEng Thesis Defence Ayush Kharel

On Friday, April 13th, 2018, Mr. Ayush Kharel has successfully defended his PDEng thesis entitled 'Design of a model to control and predict silanization during mixing'


The goal of this project was to design a control algorithm based on a correlation which links the mixing parameters to the Payne effect of a batch, thus the degree of dispersion of the silica filler in silica filled tyre treads. An in-depth study of the rheological behavior of silica rubber compounds and its dependency on the mixing process has to be performed. A model to predict the dispersion of the silica during mixing has been proposed. The final aim of the design project was to improve the control method for mixing of silica compounds, and thus to reduce the variation between different batches at Apollo Tyres Ltd.