Numerical Study of Melt-Blown Fibrous Web Uniformity Based on the Fiber Dynamics on a Collector

Fabricating a uniform melt-blown web was a complicated engineering problem. A complementary study to our previous model was conducted to aid in the optimization of the prediction of fibrous web formation. The air velocity distribution on a collector was first investigated by computational fluid dynamics software and hot-wire anemometer measurement. The numerical model consisting of beads and poles was used to describe the fiber behavior, such as movement and bending, on the collector. The fiber positions were predicted by calculating the final lay-down positions of beads. The variation coefficient of the basis weight was introduced to evaluate the uniformity of the fibrous web. A larger variation coefficient represented worse uniformity, while a smaller variation coefficient represented better uniformity. Additionally, the effects of the processing conditions on the web uniformity were investigated by the presented model. The entire modeling studied the mechanism of fibrous web formation and evaluated the web uniformity.