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The influence of heat transfer limitations on the properties of PET yarn produced by melt spinning

Includes abstract.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kotze, Tyrone
Other Authors: Rawatlal, Randhir
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Chemical Engineering 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Kotze, Tyrone
author2 Rawatlal, Randhir
author_browse Kotze, Tyrone
Rawatlal, Randhir
author_facet Rawatlal, Randhir
Kotze, Tyrone
author_sort Kotze, Tyrone
collection Thesis
description Includes abstract.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/5304
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:37:02.852Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Department of Chemical Engineering
publisherStr Department of Chemical Engineering
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/5304 The influence of heat transfer limitations on the properties of PET yarn produced by melt spinning Kotze, Tyrone Rawatlal, Randhir Chemical Engineering Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-126). The production of synthetic yarns requires a cost efficient process whilst simultaneously incorporating process methods which ultimately lead to a high quality fibre. A critical part of the production process is the spinning of the molten polymer into individual filaments which are brought together to form the filament bundle. During this process a quench air stream is blown across the filament bundle to aid in cooling the molten polymer. Here, heat transfer limitations may cause inter-filament property variations, which will adversely affect the quality of the yarn. This thesis focuses on the development of a model which allows for an a priori prediction of the influence of major process variables on the degree of fibre property uniformity. Fibre quality is characterised by the high degree of uniformity in the properties which affect the structural features of the yarn. Yarn morphology is dictated by the degree of crystallinity and molecular alignment of the polymer macro-molecules parallel to the fibre axis. These properties are strongly influenced by online tensile stress and local temperature which are, in turn, affected by heat transfer effects between the quench air and filament surface. A model that predicts the influence of heat transfer limitations on the uniformity of the as-spun fibre is therefore needed. Previous research in this field is limited with most work focussed on single filament model development. In this investigation, a monofilament model developed by previous workers (Jarecki et al., 2000) is integrated into a multifilament framework. This model assumes Newtonian behaviour of the polymer with viscosity strongly dependent on local temperature and crystallinity. The development of the multifilament model involves dividing the spinning zone into a number of cells, in which the filament properties are modelled using the monofilament model. The change in quench air temperature is estimated by means of an energy balance incorporating air flow terms and heat transfer through forced convection from the filament surface. A novel iteration approach is proposed in which the temperature of the quench air exiting each cell is iterated for until convergence is met. In simplifying the model, it was found that uniform quench air flow profile could be assumed, since the quench flow channel length was found to fall far short of the length required for turbulent flow to develop. However, it is known that increased contact time for heat transfer would occur if air were dragged down with the filament. Although modelling this effect is beyond the scope of the project, the heat transfer gradients are worsened by air-dragging and hence the model presented in this thesis reveals whether polymer uniformity is possible even under the best possible flow patterns. A negative result therefore indicates that non-uniformity will definitely occur. 2014-07-31T11:09:01Z 2014-07-31T11:09:01Z 2008 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5304 eng application/pdf Department of Chemical Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Chemical Engineering
Kotze, Tyrone
The influence of heat transfer limitations on the properties of PET yarn produced by melt spinning
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The influence of heat transfer limitations on the properties of PET yarn produced by melt spinning
title_full The influence of heat transfer limitations on the properties of PET yarn produced by melt spinning
title_fullStr The influence of heat transfer limitations on the properties of PET yarn produced by melt spinning
title_full_unstemmed The influence of heat transfer limitations on the properties of PET yarn produced by melt spinning
title_short The influence of heat transfer limitations on the properties of PET yarn produced by melt spinning
title_sort influence of heat transfer limitations on the properties of pet yarn produced by melt spinning
topic Chemical Engineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5304
work_keys_str_mv AT kotzetyrone theinfluenceofheattransferlimitationsonthepropertiesofpetyarnproducedbymeltspinning
AT kotzetyrone influenceofheattransferlimitationsonthepropertiesofpetyarnproducedbymeltspinning