Modelling and Optimization of Polymer Systems

The modelling of linear Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) was carried out based on the study\ud of the mechanism of Ring Opening Polymerization (ROP) of Poly Lactic Acid\ud (PLA) on the basis of different sets of experimental data available in the literature.\ud All possible mechanisms involving multiple steps such as initiation, propagation and\ud chain transfer were considered and the model was build using these mechanisms.\ud The approach was to formulate the model for the Multi Objective Optimization for\ud Linear PLA. The formulation of the multi objective optimization problem for linear\ud PLA was done with respect to two conflicting objective of maximizing conversion\ud and minimizing time. The decision variables for this case were all the initial reactant\ud concentrations for which the above mentioned objectives can be achieved. The\ud model was run within the range of fixed ratios of catalyst to co catalyst\ud concentrations to avoid going away from the experimental conditions using which\ud the model has been built