This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: From spiders spinning their webs to the manufacturing of textiles, the formation of fibers from liquids plays an important role in both nature and industry. Yet accurately predicting the properties of such fibers remains a challenge.
The fiber is often much thinner than the nozzle from which a polymer or solution is extruded. Factors such as temperature, flow conditions and chemical reactions ultimately determine a fiber's thickness and strength. In a new experimental study, researcher Jan Siemen Smink (Faculty of Engineering Technology) demonstrates the physical processes involved in the formation of fibers from liquids.
To investigate this phenomenon, he developed an experimental setup in which gravity continuously stretches a jet of highly reactive liquid resin. Ultraviolet (UV) light is then used to solidify the liquid at a precisely controlled moment, transforming it into a thin fiber. Using this approach, Smink and his fellow researchers were able to study in detail how factors such as UV light intensity, gravity, inertia and capillary forces influence both the rate at which the liquid solidifies and the properties of the resulting fiber.
The study "Fast Solidification of a Gravity-Stretched Liquid Jet" was published on Oct. 2 in Physical Review Letters. Smink et al, Fast Solidification of a Gravity-Stretched Liquid Jet, Physical Review Letters (2026). DOI: 10.1103/yh2j-b3wq Journal information: Physical Review Letters MA in English, copy editor since 2021 with experience in higher education and health content.
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