Transient solutions of the dynamics in low-speed fiber spinning process accompanied by flow-induced crystallization

Abstract

The transient solutions of the fiber spinning process when flow-induced crystallization occurs on the spinline have not been reported yet in the literature. By contrast, the steady state behavior is well understood and has been simulated by many researchers, as has the transient behavior with no crystallization on the spinline. In this study, this particular issue has been investigated in the low-speed spinning case where no necklike deformation occurs on the spinline, incorporating flow-induced crystallization into the mathematical model of the system and then devising proper numerical schemes to produce temporal pictures of fiber spinning process. It turns out that the difficulty in obtaining transient solution for fiber spinning when it is accompanied by flow-induced crystallization lies in the extreme sensitivity of the spinline velocity toward the fluid stress level. This parameter plays a key role in finding the spinneret stress level for the numerical marching scheme employed in obtaining the solutions of the governing equations. This is in sharp contrast to the case of no crystallization on the spinline where the profiles of spinline variables are almost insensitive to the spinneret stress level, thus allowing previous researchers to obtain transient solutions with little difficulty. In addition to the successful transient solutions of fiber spinning dynamics with flow-induced crystallization reported in the present study, it is also shown that the destabilizing effect of flow-induced crystallization in low speed spinning process is confirmed by a linear stability analysis.