NUMERICAL SIMULATION STUDY OF A STABLE JET SHAPE VARIATION IN ELECTROSPINNING

High voltage power was used to produce jet in electrospinning. It was very difficult to study electrospinning jets by experiment, because they have high-speed and complex movements in the high-voltage electrostatic field, and the diameter of jet was very small. In this study, the software of finite element analysis was used to simulate the formation process of a stable jet in electrospinning. The numerical simulation results indicated that the diameter of a stable jet decreased as well as the velocity of a stable jet increased with the increasing of drafting force when the solution flow rate was constant. At last, an experiment about a stable jet diameter has been carried out. The different conductivities spinning solution by adding different content lithium chloride into polyvinyl alcohol solution have been prepared. They could lead to different electric force for a stable jet in electrospinning. We used glass slide to intercept the stable jet to test the diameter of jet. The experiment results showed that the diameter of a stable jet decreased with the electric force increased. The experiment results were in good agreement with numerical simulation of a stable jet in electrospinning.