Analysis of fiber formation during air‐gap wet spinning

Abstract

AbstractThe steady formation of fibers in the air‐gap wet‐spinning process is analyzed, in which solidification of the fiber material is brought about by the diffusional exchange of solvent and nonsolvent in a coagulation bath. The concentration profile within the fiber is determined, and a simple model is given for the change of the material behavior with changing concentration. The material behavior of the uncoagulated spinning solution is described by a constitutive model for viscoelastic liquids that allows the incorporation of a relaxation‐time spectrum. The behavior of the solidified fiber is described by a model for rubberlike elastic solids. The effects of variable fiber temperature and skin friction on the fiber motion are also taken into account. The computed velocity profiles are compared to experimental data. These data were obtained by spinning three samples of nominally identical spinning solutions. Even though the theoretically predicted profiles agree well with those obtained with the first two samples, they completely fail to do so for the third. This failure is attributed to the unexpected extreme sensitivity of the model predictions to the width of the dynamic spectrum that is used to infer the relaxation‐time spectrum. It is also found that the velocity profile depends rather strongly on the initial conditions for the stress.