Computer Modeling of Fiber Movements in High-Speed Airflow

Abstract

High-speed airflow is widely used in many processes in the textile industry. Even though the interactions between fibers and airflows have attracted many researchers' interest, there have been few published studies that focus on the computer modeling of fiber motion in airflow fields. This research was aimed at developing a model that can effectively simulate the interactions between fibers and airflows, thus providing a clearer understanding of the behavior of textile fibers in certain processing machines. A three-dimensional model of the aerodynamic component of a rotor spinning machine was established. A commercial computation fluid dynamics (CFD) software package was used to compute the airflow field of this model and the results were analyzed to study the airflow field's characteristics. Resultant data were used as input for the fiber movement model by using a one-way coupling method. A mathematical model of fiber movement was developed, including numerical methods and visualization programs that were used to solve the model and illustrate fiber movements. The results obtained were studied and compared under different initial and boundary conditions. This research successfully demonstrates the effectiveness of computer modeling for studying the fiber motion in high-speed airflow. It provides a better understanding of fiber behavior in airflow fields and its potential and prospect in the research of textile processes, in which airflow plays an important role, are very promising.