Electrospun Nanofiber Scaffold Simulator

Process Parameters

Applied voltage 15 kV

Flow rate 1.0 mL/h

Tip-to-collector gap 15 cm

Solution viscosity / conc. 6

Live Readouts

Fiber diameter

– nm

Jet stretch ratio

–×

Deposition rate

– /min

Field strength

– kV/cm

Fibers deposited on mat

How it works

A high-voltage supply charges a polymer solution at the spinneret tip. Once the electric stress overcomes surface tension, a Taylor cone ejects a thin charged jet toward the grounded collector. The jet is electrically unstable: any lateral perturbation is amplified because nearby charge on the jet repels itself, producing the rapid bending (whipping) instability you see below — not the jet just falling straight down.

This simulator integrates real per-segment forces on a bead–spring model of the jet (the classic Reneker/Yarin representation used to study electrospinning dynamics):

F_i = q E_field  +  Σ_j k_C q² (r_i−r_j)/|r_i−r_j|³
       −  k_spring (|r_i−r_{i-1}|−L₀) û  −  c_drag v_i

E_field = V / d   (applied voltage ÷ tip–collector gap)

Because volumetric flow is conserved along the jet, whipping-driven elongation stretches a fixed volume of fluid over a much longer path, so the cross-section — and the resulting fiber diameter — shrinks as the stretch ratio grows:

A(s)·L(s) = A₀·L₀  ⇒  d ∝ 1/√(stretch ratio)

The displayed diameter combines this live stretch signal with the semi-empirical scaling trend reported for electrospun fibers (Reneker & Chun; Fridrikh, Yu, Brenner & Rutledge, 2003): diameter grows with flow rate Q and solution viscosity/concentration, and shrinks with applied voltage V, roughly d ∝ Q^0.35 · C^0.6 / V^0.4. Fibers that reach the collector plane deposit as a random non-woven mat — exactly the porous, high-surface-area scaffold geometry used to seed cells in tissue engineering (vascular grafts, wound-dressing membranes, bone/cartilage scaffolds).

Voltage — raises the field driving both ejection and whipping; more whipping ⇒ more stretch ⇒ thinner fibers.
Flow rate — more polymer fed per second means more volume to thin down for the same stretch ⇒ thicker fibers.
Gap distance — sets the field (V/d) and the flight time available for the instability to develop.
Viscosity / concentration — higher chain entanglement damps the whip and resists thinning ⇒ thicker, steadier fibers; too low and the jet would fragment into droplets (electrospraying) instead of fibers.

Charged polymer jet Deposited nanofiber mat

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