Effects of structural parameters on air consumption and mechanical energy characteristics of airflow in the vortex spinning nozzle

Abstract

Reducing energy consumption during textile production processes has currently become one of the key concerns. In order to design the nozzle of the vortex spinning machine with reduced air consumption, numerical simulation of the airflow in the nozzle is performed to investigate the effect of the length and the inlet diameter of the conical chamber in the intermediate section of the vortex tube on the air consumption and the mechanical energy characteristics of the airflow. A spinning experiment conducted to measure the flow rate and yarn tenacity is adopted to verify the numerical simulation results. The simulation results show that the air consumption of the nozzle is insignificantly affected as the length increases from 7.3 mm to 7.7 mm, while a decreasing trend has been found as the length increases from 7.7 mm to 8.1 mm. As the inlet diameter increases from 4.6 mm to 5.0 mm, the air consumption of the nozzle increases monotonically. The mechanical energy of airflow in the nozzle exhibits a minor difference between cases of lengths of 7.3 mm, 7.5 mm, and 7.7 mm, while it decreases significantly in cases of lengths of 7.9 mm and 8.1 mm. The mechanical energy of airflow in the vortex chamber increases as the inlet diameter increases. The experimental results are consistent with the numerical predictions. This work is expected to provide a reference for the design of the vortex spinning nozzle and an approach to reducing the energy consumption in the yarn production process.