Based on the vortex-velocity method,the dimensionless control equations of three-dimensional flow in single screw extruder were developed,and a new simulation method for the flow of non-Newtonian fluids was presented.A staggered grid arrangement was used,in which the dependent variables were located at different mesh points in the computational domain.The discretization scheme was second-order accurate,resulting from the use of central differencing.The simulation concerned the incompressible fluid obeying power law and the application of the finite volume method to the geometrical configuration of channel with aspect ratio up to 13.The distributions of velocities and stresses were investigated for different longitudinal pressure gradients.It was found that the distributions of velocities and stresses agreed well with the result of the two-dimensional approximation over 84% width scope owing to the large aspect ratio of the cross-section of the channel.The output decreased linearly with the increase of the longitudinal pressure gradients as observed in dimensionless forms.In addition,the center of the recirculating region in the channel cross-section drifted upward with the increase of longitudinal pressure gradients,which had positive influence on mixing performance.
