Study And Applications Of Electrospinning Trajectory Simulation Based On MATLAB And COMSOL

Electrospinning is an effective way to synthesize nanofibers. It is simple, low-cost and very adaptive. Electrospinning method is widely used in tissue engineering, polymer synthesization, inorganic nanomaterial synthesization and so on. Electrospinning process is rather complicated, involves the electromagnetics, fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, and other disciplines. In order to study the electrospinning process, software simulation method was introduced. Software simulation of electrospinning process has generally two types. One is based on mathematical tools like Matlab which can accurately calculated the trajectories of the nanofibers. The other is based on Finite Element Analysis like COMSOL Multiphysics which can calculate the orientation of electric field within the electrospinning device. However, the former one is not able to accurately describe the electric field distribution within the electrospinning device, and the latter one has trouble in calculating the trajectories. In order to solve the problem that trajectory simulation can't describe the electric field orientation, in this paper, we introduced the method of joint simulation which took advantage of both software. During joint simulation, the electric field orientation would be calculated in COMSOL Multiphysics based on the model of the electrospinning device, and then Matlab would calculate the fiber trajectories based on the results provided by COMSOL. Contrastive analysis showed that joint simulation had more accurate results which was one of the major advantages of joint simulation.Taking advantage of joint simulation, we simulated the trajectories in single-needle electrospinning device, and compared the results with the conventional Matlab simulation method. Discussed the influence of different needle voltages on trajectory distribution and fiber thickness. Corresponding experiments were conducted, and the SEM images of the nanofibers synthesized proved the accuracy of joint simulation.The other one of the major advantages was the ability to calculate fiber trajectories in electrospinning device with auxiliary electrodes. The electric field orientation in electrospinning device with circle and parallel auxiliary electrodes were analyzed, and fiber trajectories were calculated. Influences of different auxiliary electrode voltages and positions on fiber trajectories were discussed, and the auxiliary electrodes were proved to be quite influential. The simulation results were also proved to be true according to the experiments conducted.The electric field orientation in double jets electrospinning device was analyzed, and fiber trajectories were calculated. Influences of different needle voltages and distances on fiber trajectories were discussed. The results showed that the fiber trajectories were quite sensitive to the parameters discussed above. Corresponding experiments showed the joint simulation results were reliable which means joint simulation could be used to guide experiments.