Simulation of Dry-Spinning Process of Polyimide Fibers

As one type of high-performance fibers, the polyimide fibers can be prepared from the precursor polyamic acid via dry-spinning technology. Unlike the dry-spinning process of cellulose acetate fiber or polyurethane fiber, thermal cyclization reaction of the precursor in spinline with high temperature results in the relative complex in the dry-spinning process. However, the spinning process is considered as a steady state due to a slight degree of the imidization reaction from polyamic acid to polyimide, and therefore a one-dimensional model based on White-Metzer viscoelastic constitutive equation is adopted to Simulate the formation of the fibers. The changes of solvent mass fraction, temperature, axial velocity, tensile stress, imidization degree, and glass transition temperature of the filament along the spinline were predicted. The effects of spinning parameters on glass transition temperature and imidization degree were thus discussed. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 113: 3059-3067, 2009