Modelling fibre laydown and web uniformity in nonwoven fabric

The mechanical and functional performance of nonwoven fabric critically depends on the fibre architecture. The fibre laydown process plays a key role in controlling this architecture. The fibre dynamic behaviour during laydown is studied through a finite element model which describes the role of the parameters in defining the area covered by a single fibre when deposited on the conveyor belt. The path taken by a fibre is described in terms of the radius of gyration, which characterises the area covered by the fibre in the textile, and the spectrum of curvature, which describes the degree of fibre looping as a function of the arc length. Starting from deterministic and idealised fibre curvature spectra, stochastic Monte Carlo simulations are undertaken to generate full nonwoven web samples and reproduce the uniformity of fibre density. A novel image analysis technique that allows measurement of the uniformity of real spunbonded nonwoven samples from images of textiles is used to confirm the validity of the model. It is shown that the main parameter that governs the fibre density uniformity is the ratio of the fibre spinning velocity to the velocity of conveyor belt, while fibre oscillations prior to deposition play a secondary role. (paper)