NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF THE ELECTROSPINNING PROCESS USING THE TAGUCHI METHOD

Abstract

This article presents a study on numerical simulation of the influence on operating parameters of an electrospinning device using the Taguchi method and analysis of variance (ANOVA). First, three parameters - voltage, the distance between the nozzle and collector, and collector size - that are important parameters affecting the electrospinning process are selected for the study. Through pre-feasibility simulations, three levels of values for each parameter are selected, and therefore, the L9 orthogonal array is suitable for this investigation procedure. Using this orthogonal array, nine simulations of the electrospinning process were carried out. Then, the S/N ratio and ANOVA were used to determine the optimal levels of the factors and their influence on the normal current density. The results show that voltage has the most influence, accounting for 84.09%, on the output. An additional numerical simulation was carried out to validate the efficacy of the Taguchi method. The result obtained was -154.92 A/m2, which was more optimal than the previous nine results. Hence, a conclusion could be drawn that the Taguchi method, with ANOVA, was a simple but powerful tool for studying the electrospinning process.