Simulation And Experimental Investigation Of Steady State Jet In Electrospinning

Electrospinning is a popular and easy way to fabricate nanofiber from many natural or synthetic materials. At present, electrospinning has become the research hotspot in the field of nanofiber fabrication with the advantages of simple set-up, easily operated and not breakdown the structure of materials. Electrospinning nanofiber with fine diameter, high surface to volume ratio, good mechanical, optical and electrical performances, which has lots of potential application, such as filters, membranes, wound dressing. The accurate control of electrospinning process has already become the key to expand the applications of electrospinning technique, which puts forward higher demand on mechanism and controlling theoretic research of electrospinning. However, the process of electrospinning and parameter change is complicated, there is still not good way to understand the process of electrospinning, which has become the great difficulty for the development of electrospinning.The paper focused on the formulation process researching of steady state jet in electrospinning. Firstly, forces acted on the jet were analyzed, and a numerical model was found. The effect of parameters on the jet configuration (refers to the diameter of jet) was also discussed. At last, experimental data was utilized to validate the numerical modeling. This paper includes these aspects as follows:The theoretical researches and developments related to electrospinning is summarized and analyzed. The process of jet formulation is analyzed based on the law of Electrohydrodynamics, Rheology and Static Electric Field, the both Leaky Dielectric Model and Slender-Body Model were introduced to found the numerical model of steady state jet. The model is simplified in the method of dimensionless methods, in which the same symbols were used to gain the dimensionless governing equations. The method of initial value was used to instead the method boundary value in the solving process of differential equation, by which the numerical calculation complexity can be simplified. The effects of parameters on the diameter of jet, such as supplied voltage, distance between the spinneret and substrate, flow rate of the solution, conductivity, concentration and viscosity of the solution, are analyzed; The dates from electrospinning experimental of glycerol were adopted to validate the numerical model. Electrospinning experiment and numerical simulation of PEO solution were done to research the formulation process and the configuration of stead state jet.From the results, the numerical model of steady state jet can simulate well the formulation process of stead state jet in electrospinning, by which the profile of jet can be shown and the effects of the main parameters on the diameter of jet can be reflected. The numerical model of stead state jet in electrospinning would promote the understanding and improve the accurate controlling of electrospinning process.