Investigation of Basic Characteristics of Waterproof-Breathable Nonwoven Nano-Fabric Manufactured by Improved Melt-Blowing Method

Abstract

In recent years, materials with both waterproof and breathability have also been marked with the eye-catching slogan of "waterproof-breathable" on the commodity such as personal protective equipment or sportswear. Regarding the application of nanofiber non-woven fabric as waterproof and breathable materials for functional textile, although there are previous reports regarding conventional micro-fabrics, the relationship between the compositions of the fiber aggregate, waterproof and breathable properties remain unclear regarding nanofabrics. Therefore, this study shows investigation of influence of fiber diameter, bulk density and thickness of the woven nanofabric on waterproof-breathable ability with experiment and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) model. As a result, the average fiber diameters, bulk densities, and thicknesses to achieve waterproofness and air permeability were numerically obtained respectively. From the results, it can be found that, these parameters can be used as a reference for manufacturing high-performance waterproof permeable materials with both high waterproofness and high air permeability.