Rotational effects of polymeric fluids on shape of filaments in melt extruded net structures

Abstract

The present work deals with the net structures, which are produced by replacing the static die (spinneret) with two concentric dies rotating in opposite directions in a melt extrusion process. These dies consist of defined number of slots with non-circular geometries on their peripheries and the filaments are produced when the slots in disk and annulus are offset from each other. The effect of die rotation on the shape of filament is investigated by analysing the polymer flow inside the complex die slots including square and trapezoidal shapes, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The die slot shapes have also been predicted using CFD to achieve the desired filament shape.