Fundamentals of Fiber Dispersion in Water

Abstract

The primary objective of this project was to provide fundamental knowledge of fiber dispersion in water to the wet-lay nonwoven textile industry and set up the tools required to develop apparatus and analysis methods capable of predicting whether a given fiber, fiber blend or white water chemistry will provide a uniform, defect free fabric on commercial scale, wet lay nonwoven machines.Fluent 5.0 (CFD software) has been used to characterize fluid flow in a turbulent mixing tank, understand the effects of addition and modification of baffles and describe the motional behavior of fiber-representative particles in this flow domain. Experimental validation has been performed to confirm the results of these simulations. Image analysis techniques were used to automate detection and quantification of log and rope defects and to measure uniformity of fiber dispersion on the hand sheets. These techniques may be ported to effect online quality control of wet-laid fabrics.

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Citation

Degree

MS

Discipline

Mechanical Engineering

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