Modelling and mechanical characterisation of electrospun nonwoven nanofibrious fabric

Scientific interest in electrospinning as a technology to produce nanofibres and nanofibrous materials has increased dramatically in the last decade. Beneficial properties of electrospun mats and single fibres enable wide range of applicability; especially in medicine as breathable and absorptive active wound dressings enhancing healing process, and scaffolds mimicking natural cells environment, increasingly effective for tissue engineering. Other applications involve sensors, filtering media, and energy generation. Involvement of modelling tools to anticipate properties of electrospun structures is exceptionally important due to relatively low production ratio of electrospinning process and time consuming techniques to characterise electrospun materials. Models provide insight into structure’s behaviour without a necessity of building and testing multiple prototypes. They are saving your time, materials and money, at the same time indicating which experiments are worth performing to provide only interesting information in promising cases. In this work I present first mechanical Finite Elements model of structure developed within electrospinning process that anticipates mechanical behaviour of the materials on the basis of single fibres properties and arrangement. Model was validated by testing three-dimensional electrospun material with tensile testing. You will also find here extensive information on properties of single nanofibres and techniques for their measurement, properties of electrospun fabrics along with mechanisms taking part in their destruction imaged with Scanning Electron Microscopy.