Theoretical and experimental investigation of physical mechanisms responsible for polymer nanofiber formation in solution blowing

Sumit Sinha-Ray, Suman Sinha-Ray, Alexander L. Yarin, Behnam Pourdeyhimi

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    82 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This work describes a comprehensive numerical model of solution blowing process of multiple three-dimensional polymer jets issued from a die nosepiece into a high-speed air flow and deposited onto a moving screen. The model solves the quasi-one-dimensional equations of the mechanics of free liquid jets with the jet axis configuration being three-dimensional. It accounts for the polymer solution viscoelasticity, jet interaction with the surrounding high-speed air flow, and solvent evaporation and jet solidi fication. The results include the polymer jet configurations in flight as well the detailed information on the pattern in which the oncoming polymer jets are deposited on the moving screen (the so-called lay-down), and its characteristics, in particular, the fiber-size distributions obtained under different conditions. The work also describes experiments on solution blowing and comparison of the numerical and experimental data.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)452-463
    Number of pages12
    JournalPolymer
    Volume56
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015 Jan 15

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

    Keywords

    • Nanofiber
    • Numerical modeling
    • Solution blowing

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Organic Chemistry
    • Polymers and Plastics
    • Materials Chemistry

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