Enhancing the uniformity of ultra-fine glass fiber felt based on process improvement and microstructural forming mechanism

Abstract

Ultra-fine glass fiber felt (density≤ 10 kg/m³) is prepared by the flame blowing process, a porous composite consisting of 83% glass fibers and 17% phenolic binder, is usually used to increase thermal insulation in the aerospace and building industry. In this paper, the purpose is further to enhance the uniformity of ultra-fine glass fiber felt by improving the process and analyzing the microstructural forming mechanisms. A computational fluid dynamics(CFD) technique and microscopic technology are applied to simulate the airflow/fibers two-phase flow and analyze the mechanism of microstructural formation. The results show that ultra-fine glass fiber felt exhibits micro-layer structure seen as consisting of dense structures and connective structures. In addition, we adjust the process parameters of the production and design the structure to obtain a ultra-fine glass fiber felt with good uniformity.

Keywords:

• Ultra-fine glass fiber felt
• airflow/fibers
• CFD
• uniformity
• microstructural forming mechanisms

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)

Additional information

Funding

The present work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51772151). This work was also supported by the Innovative Capacity Construction Project of Jiangsu Province (Project No. BM2016010) and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.