3-D Structure of Wet-Laid Glass Fiber Veils, 1998 Nonwovens Conference Proceedings

Wet-laid glass fiber veils are stochastic structures of fibers and binder. Besides fiber and binder properties, the process conditions at several stages of the production line define the properties of fiber veils. The web thickness is an important parameter, defining other web properties, but its value cannot be found as such from a statistical analysis alone. A Monte-Carlo simulation model was the key method for investigation of the 3-D structure of glass fiber veils. The simulation model covers (1) the fiber laying process, (2) the web formation conditions, and (3) surface profilometry.

Glass fibers are essentially fully rigid at web formation, but the inter-fiber layer forces in the web structure increase in successive process stages, and so the effect of the finite fiber rigidity. Near contact points of crossing fibers in the web structure are possibly real contact points in the next stage. The creation of binder knots and films between near crossing fibers is the key mechanism for the required high inter-fiber layer forces in glass fiber veils. Essentially, only a part of the generated fiber contacts are effective for web bonding.

The web tensile strength, pore size distribution, and compressibility are investigated and showed a reasonable agreement with some experimental data.