10.1002/spepro.

003957

Investigating ber motion in a vortex spinning nozzle

Zeguang Pei, Biyu Hu, Chuanyun Diao, and Chongwen Yu Numerical simulation is used to show how bers move in the airow of the nozzle of staple-yarn spinning technology. Vortex spinning has been accepted as one of the most promising technological innovations in yarn production. The process works by directly supplying a ber strand to a drafting device, which is usually a four roller/apron system. After the bers are drafted, they pass through an air-jet nozzle and hollow spindle to be made into yarn. The most remarkable advantage of vortex spinning is that it is capable of spinning pure cotton yarns with speeds around 20 times that of conventional methods. Additionally, vortex spinning uses high-speed airow to insert twists into the yarn. This greatly increases the rotational speed of the ber strand, which not only increases the production speed and shortens the processing procedure, but also lowers the cost and energy consumption involved in the yarn production. Since the resultant yarn is twisted by the airow inside a spinning nozzle, the structure and properties of vortex yarn are highly dependent on the coupling between the bers and airow as well as the resultant ber motion.1 Therefore, it would be of both theoretical and practical value if we knew the dynamics of the exible bers inside the vortex spinning nozzle (VSN). Unfortunately, the complex mechanical problems involvedsuch as complex uid-structure interactions between the slender, exible bers and airowhave limited the studies on this issue. While numerical models for ber motion in the airow have been developed, most fall into the categories of nonspherical rigid particle models2 and multi-rigid-body systems of simple particles.3, 4 These ber models are either incapable of reecting the ber deformation or are computationally inefcient. To resolve these problems, we have introduced a 2D model for simulating the dynamics of four different types of single exible berscotton, viscose rayon, lyocell, and polyesterin the airow inside the VSN.5 We do this by solving the coupling between the ber and airow together with the ber-wall contact based on the nite element method for the solid phase and nite volume approach combined with a moving grid technique for the uid phase. In the nozzle, the ber undergoes large, nonlinear deformations with little extension.4 Thus, we adopted the total Lagrangian description to

Figure 1. The dynamic behavior of a polyester ber in the vortex spinning nozzle at various times. (a) 0.00052s. (b) 0.00079s. (c) 0.00103s. (d) 0.00131s. (e) 0.00152s. (f) 0.00171s. (g) 0.00193s. (h) 0.00215s. (i) 0.00223s.

Figure 2. Radial displacement values of the trailing end of the polyester ber varying with time.

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of twists inserted into the yarn, while the rotational amplitude expresses the tightness of the wrapping. The better wrapping effects of the bers in the yarn can be attributed to the higher number of wrapper bers and twists along with tighter wrapping. The formed yarn consists of core bers and helical bers wrapping the yarn core (see Figure 3). In summary, we have proposed a numerical modeling methodology that provides a reliable way of investigating ber dynamics in airow. Additionally, our model is an efcient solution to the mechanical problems in polymer/textile manufacturing processes involving uid-solid coupling. In future work, we will develop a 3D model for simulating the dynamics of a large quantity of bers inside the VSN. We would like to express our thanks for support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant 51076026.

Author Information Zeguang Pei College of Mechanical Engineering Donghua University Shanghai, China Zeguang Pei earned a PhD in textile engineering from Donghua University (2011). He is now a faculty member whose research centers on the application and computer modeling of uid ow in ber, yarn, and textile processing. Biyu Hu, Chuanyun Diao, and Chongwen Yu College of Textiles Donghua University Shanghai, China Biyu Hu is an ME student who expects to complete her studies in 2012. Her research program is related to the processing of vortex spun yarn. Chuanyun Diao received her ME degree in textile engineering from Donghua University (2009). Her research program was on the analysis of the vortex yarn structure. Chongwen Yu has been a professor since 1998. His research interests include new spinning methods for short-staple yarns and processing of bast bers.

Figure 3. Scanning electron micrograph of the vortex yarn.

express the ber dynamics. The ber is assumed to isotropic and elastic. In the Lagrangian description the position and deformation of an object are described in terms of the material or referential coordinates and time (t ). The reference conguration is the conguration at t D 0. The changes of the position and conguration of the material body as it moves in space with time are observed in the frame of reference. Since airow in the VSN is assumed to be turbulent, viscous, and incompressible, we use the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian methodwith a mesh adaptivity procedurefor the large deformation of the airow domain. The displacement compatibility and traction equilibrium are satised at the interface of the ber and airow, which are coupled. We adopted the Lagrange multiplier method to impose the condition of the ber-wall contact. We investigated the dynamic behaviors of the cotton, viscose rayon, lyocell, and polyester bers in the VSN airow during spinning by solving our numerical model. We obtained the formation principle and property of the vortex yarn by analyzing the motional characteristics of the bers. Figure 1 shows the simulated result of dynamic behavior of polyester bers. Through the helical rotation, the trailing end of the ber wraps to make the yarn and serves as the wrapper ber while the leading end serves as the yarn core. Figure 2 shows the displacement of the trailing tip of polyester ber in the radial direction of the nozzle, varying with time. The splay degree of the ber indicates the number of wrapper bers generated for the yarn. The number of turns for which the ber wraps denotes the number

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References 1. Z. Pei and C. Yu, Study on the principle of yarn formation of Murata vortex spinning using numerical simulation, Text. Res. J. 79, pp. 12741280, 2009. doi:10.1177/0040517509102227 2. K. Chiba, K. Yasuda, and K. Nakamura, Numerical solution of ber suspension ow through a parallel plate channel by coupling ow eld with ber orientation distribution, J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 99, pp. 145157, 2001. doi:10.1016/S03770257(01)00118-5 3. P. Skjetne, R. F. Ross, and D. J. Klingenberg, Simulation of single ber dynamics, J. Chem. Phys. 107, pp. 21082121, 1997. doi:10.1063/1.474561 4. Y. C. Zeng and C. W. Yu, Numerical simulation of ber motion in the nozzle of an air-jet spinning machine, Text. Res. J. 74, pp. 117122, 2004. doi:10.1177/004051750407400206 5. Z. Pei and C. Yu, Numerical and experimental research on the inuence of parameters on the tensile properties of Murata vortex yarn, J. Text. Inst. 101, pp. 931940, 2010. doi:10.1080/00405000903031228

c 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE)