Fibre Spinning: Model Analysis

In this dissertation a model of melt spinning (by Doufas, McHugh and Miller) has been investigated. The model (DMM model) which takes into account effects of inertia, air drag, gravity and surface tension in the momentum equation and heat exchange between air and fibre surface, viscous dissipation and crystallization in the energy equation also has a complicated coupling with the microstructure. The model has two parts, before onset of crystallization (BOC) and after onset of crystallization (AOC) with the point of onset of crystallization as the unknown interface. Mathematically the model has been formulated as a Free boundary value problem. Changes have been introduced in the model with respect to the air drag and an interface condition at the free boundary. The mathematical analysis of the nonlinear, coupled free boundary value problem shows that the solution of this problem depends heavily on initial conditions and parameters which renders the global analysis impossible. But by defining a physically acceptable solution, it is shown that for a more restricted set of initial conditions if a unique solution exists for IVP BOC then it is physically acceptable. For this the important property of the positivity of the conformation tensor variables has been proved. Further it is shown that if a physically acceptable solution exists for IVP BOC then under certain conditions it also exists for IVP AOC. This gives an important relation between the initial conditions of IVP BOC and the existence of a physically acceptable solution of IVP AOC. A new investigation has been done for the melt spinning process in the framework of classical mechanics. A Hamiltonian formulation has been done for the melt spinning process for which appropriate Poisson brackets have been derived for the 1-d, elongational flow of a viscoelastic fluid. From the Hamiltonian, cross sectionally averaged balance mass and momentum equations of melt spinning can be derived along with the microstructural equations. These studies show that the complicated problem of melt spinning can also be studied under the framework of classical mechanics. This work provides the basic groundwork on which further investigations on the dynamics of a fibre could be carried out. The Free boundary value problem has been solved numerically using shooting method. Matlab routines have been used to solve the IVPs arising in the problem. Some numerical case studies have been done to study the sensitivity of the ODE systems with respect to the initial guess and parameters. These experiments support the analysis done and throw more light on the stiff nature and ill posedness of the ODE systems. To validate the model, simulations have been performed on sets of data provided by the company. Comparison of numerical results (axial velocity profiles) has been done with the experimental profiles provided by the company. Numerical results have been found to be in excellent agreement with the experimental profiles