Modeling the nanofiber fabrication with the melt blowing annular die

Melt blowing is commonly used to convert polymer resin directly into nonwoven fabrics of superfine fibers. Further decrease of the fiber diameter will improve the filtration and adsorption properties remarkably and thus has been appealing to the researchers. Besides the dual slot die, the annular die is utilized to manufacture superfine fibers in the melt blowing process as well. In the dual slot die, the high velocity air flow from both sides of the polymer melt. However, the air encircles the polymer melt entirely in the annular die, which is in favor of the polymer drawing and thus manufacture of nanofibers. In this paper, the air flow field model of the annular die is established and solved numerically. The polymer drawing with the melt blowing annular die is modeled and simulated by introducing the simulation results of the air flow field. The predicted fiber diameters coincide with the experimental data. Effects of the polymer flow rate and initial air velocity on the fiber diameter are also explored. The results show good perspective of using melt blowing technology to manufacture nanofibers materials because melt blowing has a higher output than electrospinning.

melt blowing; annular die; nanofiber; model