Textile Research Journal

http://trj.sagepub.com Permeability in Engineered Non-woven Fabrics Having Patterned Structure

Ningtao Mao Textile Research Journal 2009; 79; 1348 DOI: 10.1177/0040517509342311 The online version of this article can be found at: http://trj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/79/15/1348

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Textile Research Journal

Article

Permeability in Engineered Non-woven Fabrics Having Patterned Structure

Abstract

Ningtao Mao1
School of Design, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.

The patterned non-woven fabric structure is a typical non-homogeneous non-woven fabric and is frequently used as a hygienic medical absorbent material to control fluid transport for directional delivery. In this paper, the characteristics of the structural variation in both strip and point patterned non-woven fabrics are examined, and the relationship between the global permeabilities in both the transverse and in-plane directions in the patterned non-woven fabrics and the local fabric structural parameters (e.g. fiber diameter, fiber orientation distribution, fabric porosity, and local pattern dimensions) is established.

Key words Nonwoven, patterned, structure, permeability, heterogeneous, anisotropy

The uniformity of non-woven fabric is characterized in terms of the variation of fabric structural parameters such as the fabric density, porosity, thickness surface properties (e.g. contact angle), and the dimensions and shapes of the individual local fabric patched areas in non-woven fabrics. Although the performance and properties of non-woven fabrics are frequently modeled based on the assumption that the non-woven fabrics are homogeneous [13], real non-woven fabrics are inherently non-uniform and heterogonous [46]. The structure of the non-woven fabrics, including fabric porosity and thickness, fiber diameters, fiber surface properties and fiber orientation distribution, frequently varies from location to location and the fabrics are not homogeneous. It is known that the variation in non-woven fabric structures has a remarkable influence on the properties and performance of non-woven products [7, 8]. The fabric uniformity of local fabric density and thickness leads to a change in fabric porosity, which affects the fabric permeabilities in both the transverse direction and the fabric plane and thus has a significant influence on fluid transport performance of these products. On the one hand, fluid transport in fabrics having irregular uniformity is uncontrollable and usually has adverse effects on the performance of end-use products. For example, it is known that contaminant particles have more opportunity to easily penetrate through the highly porous fabric areas having lower fabric density and smaller thickness in non-woven filters and such fabric structural defects might largely comprise the filtration coefficient. On the other hand, non-woven fabric can be designed to exaggerate the fabric structural uniformity to facilitate directional fluid delivery in functional nonwoven products. For instance, it is frequently observed that the non-homogeneous non-woven microstructure creates a finger flow front in the fabric plane, and this preferential liquid flow in non-woven applications can be regulated through engineering the non-woven fabric to have periodic structural patterns to obtain a directional fluid flow in the patterned non-woven fabric.1 Two typical examples of patterned fabrics described in this paper are strip and point patterned fabrics, in which the porosity and permeability are in dual-scales and in cyclic patterns. In these patterned non-woven fabrics, the fabric structure within each type of patterned area might be homogeneous but the fabric porosity and the fabric surface properties between each type of fabric area in the pattern might be in different scales. Such patterned non-woven fabrics could be widely used in wipes, medical and hygienic absorbent materials, filters, composites and artificial leather

Corresponding author: e-mail: n.mao@leeds.ac.uk

Textile Research Journal Vol 79(15): 13481357 DOI: 10.1177/0040517509342311

The Author(s), 2009. Reprints and permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav

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Figure 1 A non-woven fabric having areas of various local fabric porosities.

substrates to produce preferential liquid flow in the nonwoven fabric plane. In engineering these patterned non-woven fabric products to facilitate preferential liquid flow for directional fluid delivery, it is desirable to establish a model to describe the relationship between the fabric structure and the fabric global permeability in order to predict the directional fluid flow. The prediction of global permeability in patterned fabric is of great interest for technical applications with facilitated fluid transport in specific directions, such as applications in drainage in medical devices and in geotextiles, components in filter composites, wipes and hygiene products. However, existing models of fluid transport in non-woven fabrics are usually based on the assumption that non-woven fabrics are homogeneous porous structures, and little research about the influence of non-woven fabric uniformity on the fabric permeability and fluid transport has been reported. In this paper, the characteristics of two examples of patterned non-woven fabrics having variation of the fabric thickness and fabric density are examined and the relationship between the fabric structural parameters and the fabric global permeability are obtained in terms of fabric structural parameters (fiber diameter, fiber orientation distribution and fabric porosity and the dimensions of the geometry pattern).

other having lower permeability/porosity (or the less permeable area (LPA)). If it is assumed that the local areas in each group are identical in other structural parameters (i.e. fiber diameter, fiber orientation distribution, fiber surface properties), the non-woven fabric is thus modeled as a fibrous structure having dual porosity or dual permeability (see Figure 1). In patterned non-woven fabric structures, the local fabric porosity, fabric thickness, fiber orientation distribution, and fiber surface properties might vary in regular distance intervals, but the fabric structure within individual local area is homogeneous. The structural and geometrical characteristics of two typical patterned fabric examples, strip and point patterned non-woven fabrics of dual porosity, are shown in Figure 2. In Figure 2, is the volume fraction of the solid polymer material, t, w, l are the thickness, width and length of a fabric segment respectively, df is the fiber diameter, is the fiber orientation distribution in the fabric segment area, subscript h refers to the highly permeable fabric area (HPA) and subscript l refers to the less permeable fabric area (LPA). The structure of the two patterned non-woven fabrics can be modeled as follows: 1. the patterned fabric consists of two identical local areas HPA and LPA aligned in regular patterns; 2. the fabric is homogeneous within every local area HPA and LPA; 3. the fabric structure in each local area are anisotropic because of the different fiber orientation distribution h and l in the HPA and LPA, respectively; 4. the fabric permeability in local area HPA is much greater than that in the LPA; 5. the fluid flow in patterned non-woven fabrics is assumed to be laminar fluid flow and Darcys law applies; the turbulence in the fluid flow because of

Characteristics of the Structure of Two Patterned Non-woven Fabrics

Most of non-homogeneous non-woven fabrics can be simplified as a conceptual structural model that the local patched areas in the non-woven fabric roughly consists of two groups of areas, one having greater fabric permeability/porosity (or the highly permeable area (HPA)) and the

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Figure 2 Examples of two typical patterned fabrics: (a) strip patterned fabric; (b) point patterned fabric.

the fabric density/thickness variation, the sharp corner of the geometry of the patterned areas and the interface between the two local adjacent areas are ignored; 6. the fabric thickness in the HPA is greater than the fabric thickness in the LPA, i.e. th > tl, and the global fabric thickness is assumed to be represented by the greatest local fabric thickness, i.e. t = th. Based on the model of fabric structure described by the above assumptions and the two unit cells as shown in Figure 3, the fabric global permeability in these two patterned non-woven fabrics can be modeled.

non-woven areas, HPA and LPA. The velocities of the fluid flow through these patterned non-woven fabrics in the transverse direction (i.e. the direction perpendicular to the fabric plane), machine direction (MD) and cross direction (CD) in the fabric plane depend on the global permeability of the patterned fabrics in transverse direction, MD and CD, respectively. The model to describe the relationship between the global permeability in specific directions in patterned nonwoven fabrics and the fabric structural parameters can be obtained based on the analysis of fluid flow through a unit cell of the fabric, which obeys Darcys law. Darcys law [9] for one-dimensional steady-state fluid flow through a nonwoven fabric is as follows p k q = -- ---- x (1)

Global Permeability in Patterned Non-woven Fabrics

The unit cells of two patterned non-woven fabrics described in Figure 3 are a composite of two types of homogeneous

where q is the volumetric flow rate of the fluid flow, is the viscosity of the fluid, p is the pressure drop along the

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Figure 3 Unit cells of two typical patterned fabrics: (a) strip patterned fabric; (b) point patterned fabric.

Figure 4 Fluid flow through the unit cells of two typical patterned fabrics in the tranverse direction perpendicular to the fabric plane: (a) strip patterned fabric; (b) point patterned fabric.

conduit length of the fluid flow x, and k is the global permeability of the porous media. The directional permeabilities in these two homogeneous local areas (HPA and LPA) in any fluid flow direction are dependent on the local fabric structural parameters (fiber diameter, fabric porosity, and fiber orientation distribution) and can be determined as follows [10, 11]:
2 df ST 1 k ( ) = ----- ----- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 32 2 2 zS + ( 1 z ) ( ) T cos ( ) + S sin ( ) d 0

Global Transverse Permeability of Patterned Fabrics in the Direction of Fabric Thickness

Based on the assumptions in Section 2, the fluid flow through patterned fabrics in the direction of fabric thickness is the same as fluid flow through a group of paralleled HPA and LPA non-woven components (see Figure 4). Therefore, the amount of the fluid flow through the nonwoven materials in the transverse direction, QTR, is the sum of the amount of fluid flow through LPA and HPA components perpendicular to the fabric plane, QHPA_TR and QLPA_TR; the pressure difference in the direction of the fabric thickness in these HPA and LPA components are identical, i.e. p = pout pin. Thus, for strip patterned fabrics, we have (see Figures 2(a) and 4(a)), QTR = QHPA_TR + QLPA_TR where k TR p - ( w + wl ) l - --QTR = ------ th h k hTR p -(w l) - --QHPA_TR = -------- th h (3)

(2)

where S = 2 ln 4 + 3 +
2

and

T =

1 ln + ------------2 1+

is the flow direction, is the fiber orientation direction in the fabric plane, k() is the directional permeability of the fabric, df is fiber diameter, and () is the fiber orientation distribution function, and z is the fraction of fibers aligned perpendicular to the fabric plane.

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Textile Research Journal 79(15) k lTR p -(w l) - -QLPA_TR = ------- tl l

khTR and klTR are the local transverse permeability of HPA and LPA, respectively, and they are determined using equation (2); th and tl are the local fabric thickness in the HPA and LPA, respectively. Therefore, k lTR -+A kTR = B --------k hTR where wh A = -----, wl th B = --tl where k CD ( p out p in ) -t l - ------------------------QCD = ------- ( wh + wl ) h k hCD ( p mid p in ) - ( th l ) - -------------------------QHPA_CD = ---------wh k lCD ( p out p mid ) - ( tl l ) - ---------------------------QLPA_CD = --------wl khCD and klCD are the local permeability of the HPA and LPA perpendicular to the strip direction, respectively. Therefore, A -k kCD = ----------------------------------------( 1 + A ) ( A + BE ) hCD (7) 1 - k hTR ----------- 1 + A

(4)

Figure 5 Fluid flow through the unit cell of strip patterned fabric in the machine direction (MD) and cross direction (CD).

QCD = QHPA_CD = QLPA_CD

(6)

For point patterned fabric (see Figures 2(b) and 4(b)), we have k TR p - ( w + wl ) ( ll + lh ) - --QTR = ------ th h k hTR p - ( ( l + l ) ( wh + wl ) 2 ll wl ) - --QHPA_TR = -------- th h l k lTR p - ( 2 wl ll ) - -QLPA_TR = ------- tl Substituting these equations into equation (3), the transverse permeability of point patterned fabric, kTR, is thus as follows: k lTR 2 - 1 k hTR - B --------kTR = 1 + -----------------------------------( 1 + A ) ( 1 + C ) k hTR where C = lh/ll.

(5)

Global Permeability of Strip Patterned Fabrics in the Direction of MD and CD

The fluid flow through a strip patterned fabric in the strip direction (MD) is equivalent to fluid flow through a group of HPA and LPA non-woven components in parallel (see Figure 5(a)). In contrast, the fluid flow through patterned fabrics perpendicular to the strip direction (CD) is the equivalent to fluid flow through a group of HPA and LPA non-woven components in serial (see Figure 5(b)). Therefore, the amount of the fluid flow through the non-woven fabric in the CD is equal to the amount of the fluid flow through each individual LPA and HPA component in serial. Thus, for strip patterned fabrics, we have (see Figure 5(b))

where E = khCD/klCD. For fluid flow through the strip patterned fabric in MD (see Figure 5(a)), the amount of the fluid flow through the non-woven fabric in the MD, QMD, is the sum of the fluid flow through LPA and HPA components in parallel, QHPA_MD and QLPA_MD. Thus, we have, QMD = QHPA_MD + QLPA_MD where k MD QMD = -------- p -- t ( w + wl ) l h h (8)

k hMD p --(t w ) QHPA_MD = ---------- l h h k lMD p -- (t w ) QLPA_MD = --------- l l l p = (pout pin)

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Figure 6 Fluid flow through the unit cell of point patterned fabric in the machine direction (MD) and cross direction (CD).

khMD and klMD are the permeability of the HPA and LPA perpendicular to the strip direction, respectively. Therefore, k lMD 1 ----------------kMD = Ak hMD + ---------B (1 + A) (9)

k hMD 2 BCD - -----------------------------------------kMD = ----------------- + A 1 ( A + 1 ) ( C + BD ) ( 1 + C )

(11)

where D = khMD/klMD. Similarly, for fluid flow through the point patterned fabric in the CD (see Figure 6(b)), we have QCD = (Qg + Qj + Q m 1 ) where k CD p - ---------------------- ( l + l ) t QCD = ------- ( wl + wh ) l h h k hCD p - ---------------------- ( l l ) t Q j1 + Q j2 = --------- ( wl + wh ) h l h k hCD k hCD w l t h bp - ----------------------- ----- --l t , where b = ---------Q g = --------- ( 1 + b ) wh l h k lCD w h t l k hCD w l t h k hCD bp - l t , where b = ---------- ----- --- ----------------------Q f = --------- ( 1 + b ) wh l h k lCD w h t l p = (pin pout) (12)

Global Permeability of Point Patterned Fabrics in the Direction of MD and CD

As shown in Figure 6(a), the flow rate of fluid flow through a point patterned fabric in the MD is equivalent to the flow rate of fluid flow through a group of HPA and LPA nonwoven components in parallel/serial hybrid (see Figure 6(a)) in the MD. Therefore, the amount of fluid flow through the nonwoven fabric in the MD, QMD, is the sum of the flow rate of fluid flow through areas b (b = b1 + b2 + b3), c1, c2 and d (d = d1 + d2), Qb, Q c1 , Q c2 and Qd as follows: QMD = (Qb + Q c1 + Q c2 + Qd) where k MD p ----------------- ( w + w h ) t h QMD = -------- ( ll + lh ) l k hMD l l t h k hMD ap -------------------- ( w t ) , where a = ------------- --Q b = ---------- ( 1 + a ) lh l h k lMD l h t l k hMD p ----------------- [ ( w h w l ) t h ] Q C 1 + Q C 2 = ---------- ( lh + ll ) k hMD ap k hMD l l t h -------------------- ( w t ) , where a = ------------- --Q d = ---------- ( 1 + a ) lh l h k lMD l h t l p = (pin pout) Therefore, (10)

Therefore,
k hCD 2 ABE - ----------------------------------------- + C 1 k CD = ----------------( C + 1 ) ( A + BE ) ( 1 + A )

(13)

where E = khCD/klCD. As a summary, the global permeability in the transverse direction, MD and CD in the fabric plane of both strip and point patterned non-woven fabrics are shown in Table 1.

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Table 1 Summary of the global permeabilities of patterned non-woven fabrics.

Types of patterned fabric Strip patterned Point patterned Global permeability in the transverse direction (perpendicular to the fabric plane) kTR
1 k lTR k TR = ------------- B ---------- + A k hTR 1 + A k hTR k lTR 2 - B ---------- 1 k hTR k TR = 1 + -----------------------------------( 1 + A ) ( 1 + C ) k hTR

Global permeability in the fabric plane Permeability parallel to the strip (MD) kMD
1 k hMD k MD = A + ------- ----------------BD ( 1 + A ) k hMD 2 BCD - ----------------------------------------- + A 1 k MD = ----------------( A + 1 ) ( C + BD ) ( 1 + C )

Permeability perpendicular to the strip (CD) kCD

A -k k CD = ---------------------------------------( 1 + A ) ( EB + A ) hCD k hCD 2 ABE - ---------------------------------------- + C 1 k CD = ----------------( C + 1 ) ( A + BE ) ( 1 + A )

Where Note

wh th lh k hMD A = ------ , B = ---- , C = --- , D = -----------wl tl ll k lMD

k hCD E = -----------, k lCD

ki (i = h, l) are the local permeabilities in the patterned non-woven fabrics, and subscripts TR, MD and CD refer to the local permeability in transverse direction, machine direction and cross direction, respectively.

The Influence of Fabric Structural Parameters on the Fabric Global Permeability and its Anisotropy
One of the applications of the established models is to predict the influence of non-woven fabric structural parameters on the fabric permeabilities in the engineering design of the fabric structure. It is shown in Table 1 that the global permeability of the fabric depends on the fabric structural parameters such as the ratio of the pattern sizes (i.e. constants A, B and C) and the ratio of local permeabilities (i.e. constants D and E). It is interesting to note that, in the current models, the absolute value of the geometrical sizes (e.g. wh, wl, lh, ll, th, and tl) do not affect the global permeability of the fabric. It should be noted that all of the global permeabilities, either in the direction of fabric thickness (i.e. the transverse direction) or in the plane direction (i.e. the CD and MD), depends on the ratio of the fabric thickness. For the permeability in the fabric plane, this conclusion is based on the assumption that the fluid flow is constrained inside the fabric and does not flow out of the fabric structure (see Figure 7). If fluid flow leaked out of the fabric structure, the permeability models above might not apply. Examples of the effect of non-woven structural parameters on the predicted global permeability in the MD in the fabric plane in a point patterned non-woven fabric (the permeability in the MD in the HPA is assumed to be 8.0 109 m2) based on equation (11) are given in Figures 8(a), (b) and (c). All of the predicted global permeabilities in the MD in the patterned fabric are less than the permeability in the HPA in the machine direction. As shown in Figure 8(a), the predicted global permeability in the MD increases markedly with the increase of the ratio of the width of the two local areas, HPA and LPA (i.e. constant C), and it also increases with the increase of the ratio of the length of the two local areas (i.e. constant A). The effect of the ratio of the fabric thicknesses in LPA and HPA on the global permeability is shown in Figure 8(b), and the global

Figure 7 Fluid flows in the transition area (between LPA and HPA) in the fabric plane: (a) LPAHPA transition area in a bonding point; (b) cross section of a fluid flow in the HPALPA transition area.

permeabilities of the non-woven fabric in the MD is found to be increase with the increase of the ratio of the directional permeabilities in the LPA and the HPA (see Figure 8(c)). One important advantage of patterned non-woven fabrics is to create anisotropic fluid flow in the structure. In

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Figure 8 (a) The effect of the ratio of the width in two local areas, HPA and LPA, on the predicted global permeability in the MD (note that D = 10). (b) The effect of the ratio of the thickness in two local areas, HPA and LPA, on the predicted global permeability in the MD (note that D = 10). (c) The effect of the ratio of the permeability in two local areas, HPA and LPA, on the predicted global permeability in the MD (note that A = 1, B = 5).

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Figure 9 The global permeabilities of the fabrics in the MD and CD against the ratio of the lengths in the two local areas, HPA and LPA (D = 10, E = 10).

homogeneous non-woven fabrics, the maximum anisotropy of permeability that can be achieved is two [12]. In order to achieve greater anisotropic fluid flow (anisotropy is greater than two) in non-woven media, the engineering design of a heterogeneous patterned fabric is an important technique. Figure 9 shows the differences in global permeabilities in the MD and CD in a series of anisotropic patterned nonwoven fabrics having different ratios of pattern sizes. All of the LPAs and HPAs in these fabrics are homogeneous, isotropic and have equal fabric thickness. Each HPA has an identical permeability of 8.0 109 m2 and each LPA has a

permeability of 8.0 1010 m2. It is evident in Figure 9 that the differences in the global permeabilities of the fabric between the MD and CD increase with the decreases of the ratio of the lengths in the two local areas (HPA and LPA) (i.e. constant C). The influence of the ratio of pattern sizes on the anisotropy of global permeability of these fabrics is shown in Figure 10. The anisotropy of the permeability changes significantly from 1.1 to 3.2 when the ratio of the lengths in the two local areas, HPA and LPA (i.e. constant C), decreases from 5 to 0.5 and the ratio of the lengths (i.e. constant A) has a relatively greater value (A = 10). In addi-

Figure 10 The influence of the ratio of pattern sizes on the anisotropy of permeability (D = 10, E = 10).

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Permeability in Engineered Non-woven Fabrics Having Patterned Structure N. Mao tion, the anisotropy of the permeability changes noticeably from less than 1 (e.g. 0.8) to greater than 1 (e.g. 1.3) when the ratio of the lengths in the two local areas, HPA and LPA (i.e. constant C), decreases from 5 to 0.5 and the ratio of the lengths (i.e. constant A) has a relatively smaller value (A = 2). Therefore, carefully design of patterned fabrics can decisively determine the fluid transport properties of the fabrics.

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Literature Cited
Erel, S., and Warner, S.B., The Strength of Thermally Pointbonded Nonwoven Fabric, Textile Res. J., 71(1), 2230 (2001). 2. Destephen, J.A., and Choi, K., Modelling of Filtration Processes of Fibrous Filter Media, Separations Technol., 6(1), 55 67 (1996). 3. Adanur, S., and Liao, T., Fiber Arrangements Characteristics and Their Effects on Nonwoven Tensile Behavior, Textile Res. J., 69(11), 816824 (1999). 4. Chhabra, R., Nonwoven UniformityMeasurements Using Image Analysis, Int. Nonwovens J., 12(1), 4450 (2003). 5. Lien, H., and Liu, C., A Method of Inspecting Non-woven Basis Weight Using the Exponential Law of Absorption and Image Processing, Textile Res. J., 76(7), 547, (2006). 6. Militky, J., and Klicka, V., Nonwovens Uniformity Spatial Characterization, in IMACS Multiconference on Computational Engineering in Systems Applications, 46 October 2006, Beijing, pp. 21412145. 7. Hoffmann, H.G., Application of Nonwovens in Batteries, in Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Battery Conference on Applications and Advances, 1013 January 1995, Long Beach, CA, pp. 253259. 8. Dever, M., Mueller, T.C., Schnetder, J.F., and Womac, A.R., Simulate Field Spraying Conditions and Its Use in Comparing the Barrier Resistance of Fabrics to Liquid Sprays of Atrazine in Capillary and Pressure Penetration Tests, in Performance of Protective Clothing: Issues and Priorities for the 21st Century Volume 7, ASTM STP 1386, Nelson, C.N., and Henry, N.W. eds., ASTM, West Conshocken, PA, 2000. 9. Darcy, H., Les fontaines publiques de la ville de Dijon, Dalmont, Paris (1856). 10. Mao, N., and Russell, S.J., Directional Permeability of Homogeneous Anisotropic Nonwoven Structures, Part I: The Relationship between Directional Permeability and Fiber Orientation, J. Textile Inst., 91(2), 235243 (2000). 11. Mao, N., and Russell, S.J., Modeling Permeability in Homogeneous Three-Dimensional Nonwoven Fabrics, Textile Res. J., 73(11), 939944 (2003). 12. Mao, N., Liquid Transport and Wicking in Nonwoven Materials, VDM Publishing House, 2009. 1.

Summary
The models of permeability of non-woven fabrics having patterned structures have been established in this paper, these models provide a theoretical basis for the simulation of fluid flow in heterogeneous, non-uniform, non-woven fabrics by using numerical methods, which cannot be described by using existing models. The validation of these models and their application in various non-woven structures will be reported in future papers. 1. The global permeabilities of the patterned non-woven fabrics are a function of both the geometrical dimensions and local permeabilities in the direction of fluid flow through the two homogeneous fabric areas, HPA and LPA. The local permeability of patterned nonwoven fabrics can be determined by the fabric structural parameters (fiber diameter, fiber orientation distribution, and fabric porosity). 2. The global permeabilities of patterned non-woven fabrics depend on the ratio of local pattern dimensions (ratio of the width, ratio of the length, and ration of the local thickness), but are not influenced by the absolute value of these local dimensional parameters (i.e. the width, length, and thickness of local patterns). 3. The global permeabilities of strip and point patterned non-woven fabrics are obtained in equations (4), (5), (7), (9), (11), and (13).

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