Hydroentanglement of Polymer Nonwovens 2: Simulation of multiple polymer fibers and prediction of entanglement

The dynamic model of polymer fibers in hydroentanglement process developed in Part 1 (G. Li, C. Staszel, A.L. Yarin, B. Pourdeyhimi. Hydroentanglement of Polymer Nonwovens. 1: Experimental and theoretical/numerical framework) is generalized here to simulate simultaneous evolution and entanglement of multiple fibers. The fiber-fiber entanglement morphologies are established and the number of entanglements predicted as a function of time. The results of the experiments of Part 1 are compared with the numerical predictions based on the present model. It is shown that the model can successfully be used to describe hydroentanglement of nonwovens. The thickness reduction and the increase in the number of entanglements are predicted for different velocities of water jets.