Investigation of air filter properties of nanofiber non-woven fabric manufactured by a modified melt-blowing method along with flash spinning method

Nanofibers are used in various fields and applications, such as medical care, environment protection, apparel, and agriculture; it is believed that they will continue to show substantial growth in the future. In this study, we focused on the filtration application of nanofibers. The filtration performances achieved polymeric nanofiber mass production by a melt-blowing method. First, the filtration performances of the fiber were experimentally tested with different thicknesses. Then, the computational fluid dynamics flow-analyzing software was used to simulate the pressure loss and flow resistivity of the trial-produced filter under the same conditions as those used in the experiment. Then, a three-directional physical model was proposed and used to calculate the fiber's gap size with different diameters under the same filling rate and the assumption that the fibers always exhibit uniform distribution. Consequently, it was confirmed that the trial-produced non-woven filter possessed excellent filtration abilities and that the investigated data can be used as a standard to manufacture non-woven fabric for producing high-performance filters and face masks. However, the manufacturing method of non-woven fabric filters must be investigated to satisfy both high particle filtration efficiency and low pressure loss in order to develop a high-performance filter.

Automated summary

This study focuses on the filtration application of nanofibers, showing that the trial-produced non-woven filter possesses excellent filtration abilities and can be used as a standard for manufacturing high-performance filters and face masks. However, further investigation into the manufacturing method of non-woven fabric filters is needed to satisfy both high particle filtration efficiency and low pressure loss for developing a high-performance filter.