Electrostatic fiber spinning from polymer melts. II. Examination of the flow field in an electrically driven jet

Abstract

Abstract The flow field in an electrically driven jet has been examined and quantitatively analyzed. Using a model fluid, the nature of the streamlines and magnitude of the stream velocities were investigated with the aid of tracer particle photography. It was found that the velocity field is not purely extensional, but contains rotational components as well. Furthermore, the only portion of the jet completely free of any rotational component is the region about the symmetry axis. The extensional strain rate along the symmetry axis increases rapidly with the applied electric field intensity and can attain values in excess of 50 sec −1 . This suggests that it might be possible to draw continuous oriented fibers from polymer melts by this technique if the jet can be operated at sufficiently high electric field intensity.