Abstract
The present contribution deals with thermofluidynamical features occurring during
the drawing of capillaries for microstructured optical fibres. Here, the process
stability depends strongly on flow and thermal processes taking place as a preform is
heated and drawn in the furnace. This is the case particularly for hollow fibres for
which the existence of the inner hole directly depends on material parameters such as
the surface tension and the rheological properties and on process parameter such as hole
internal pressure and the process temperature. A fluid-mechanics model suggested in the
literature that makes use of asymptotic analysis based on small aspect ratio of the
micro capillaries, has been revisited and improved recently and the leading-order
equations have been then examined in some asymptotic limits by Luzi et al. . Starting
from the novel class of solutions of the simplified equations of motion the present
paper focuses on the effect of both surface tension and internal hole pressure since
those are of essential importance during drawing. Thus, comparisons with experimental
data are performed, in order to validate the analytical model developed in , which will
be briefly presented here. The theoretical model gives very accurate predictions both
when the internal hole is pressurized or when no pressure is applied, as long as the
temperature does not reach too high values.
© 2010 IEEE
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