Numerical simulation of carbon nanotube fibers motion in the chemical vapor deposition reactor

Abstract

In order to explore the motion of carbon nanotube fibers prepared by the chemical vapor deposition reactor, the gas flow field in the reactor is simulated using the computational fluid dynamics software. The dynamics analysis of carbon nanotube fibers in the gas flow field is carried out based on the bead-rod fiber model. The fiber motion is simulated numerically by introducing the gas velocity into the fiber dynamics equation. Through iterative computation, the instantaneous motion state and trajectory of carbon nanotube fibers in the reactor are obtained. The simulation results are consistent with the motion diffraction photo of carbon nanotube fibers and explain the cause of ‘sock’ structure in the preparation process of carbon nanotube fibers preliminary. The results show the great potential of this research for understanding the forming mechanism of carbon nanotube fibers.

Keywords:

• Carbon nanotube fiber
• chemical vapor deposition
• gas flow field
• motion simulation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 51303121; China National Textile and Apparel Council under Grant No. 2021036; and Qing Lan Project.