a b s t r a c t
With increasing interest in hot melt extrusion for preparing polymer–drug systems, knowledge of the
shear and extensional rheology of polymers is required for the formulation and process design. Shear
and extensional rheology of three commercial grades of hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) was examined
at 140, 145 and 150 ◦C using twin bore capillary rheometry at range of processing rates. The power law
model fitted for shear flow behaviour up to shear strain rates of approximately 1000 s−1, above which
measured shear viscosities deviated from the power law and surface instabilities were observed in the
extrudate, particularly for higher molecularweight grades. Shear thinning indexwas found to be relatively
independent of temperature and molecular weight, whilst the consistency index, indicative of zero shear
viscosity increased exponentially with increase in molecular weight. Extensional viscosity of all grades
studied was found to decrease with increasing temperature and increasing processing rate. Foaming of
the extrudate occurred especially at low temperatures and with the high molecular weight grade. An
understanding of the relationships between shear and extensional flows with temperature, processing
rate and molecular weight is a useful tool for process design; optimisation and troubleshooting of Hot
melt extrusion (HME) of pharmaceutical formulations.