Fractionation of nylon fibres using a vertical settler

Based on theoretical analysis, a continuous vertical settler was found capa ble of fractionating fibres according to their length. Fractionation experi ments confirm the theoretical predictions. Under the extreme dilution used in this study, there was no effect of feed consistency. The performance of fibre fractionation decreased with an increase in the overflow stream flow rate. Fibre fractionation performance improved for a larger fibre diameter. A theoretical model was developed to simulate fractionation in the continu ous vertical settler and it agrees fairly well with the experimental result s.