A study of ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer fiber for the drawing process

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of the drawing process of ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) fibers on their physical properties. Three different ethylene contents, namely EV-32, EV-38 and EV-44, were used where the ethylene content has the order of EV-44 > EV-38 > EV-32. The result indicates that at the same drawing temperature and draw ratio, the online drawing stress of the fiber with high ethylene content is higher than that with low ethylene content. Moreover, the drawn EVOH fiber, at the drawing temperature of 80℃ and the draw ratio of 2.0, exhibits an optimal mechanical property. As the draw ratio increases, the online drawing stress, birefringence and initial modulus increase. Notably, unlike typical polymeric fibers, the glass transition temperature ( Tg) of the drawn EVOH fibers decreases with the draw ratio due to more water being absorbed by thinner fibers within the same number of samples. The draw ratio was found to have little effect on the melting temperature ( Tm). At the same draw ratio, the online drawing stress, birefringence, stress and initial modulus of the fiber EV-44, which has the highest ethylene content, is higher than those of EV-32 and EV-38. The creep strain of the drawn fibers EV-32 and EV-38 linearly increase with the drawing time when the applied stress maintains constant at 150 MPa, while an insignificant increase is observed for EV-44, suggesting that EV-44 is difficult to deform and has higher size stability. In the stress relaxation test, the elongation increases with the initial stress. At the same elongation percentage, the initial stress of the drawn fibers has the following trend: EV-44 > EV-38 > EV-32 and the stress relaxation time (τ) has the following trend: EV-44 > EV-38 > EV-32, indicating again that EV-44 is relatively difficult to deform during drawing. Finally, EV-44 fiber performed the best in the hot water resistance test.