Scientific interest in electrospinning as a technology to produce nanofibres and
nanofibrous materials has increased dramatically in the last decade. Beneficial
properties of electrospun mats and single fibres enable wide range of applicability;
especially in medicine as breathable and absorptive active wound dressings
enhancing healing process, and scaffolds mimicking natural cells environment,
increasingly effective for tissue engineering. Other applications involve sensors,
filtering media, and energy generation. Involvement of modelling tools to anticipate
properties of electrospun structures is exceptionally important due to relatively
low production ratio of electrospinning process and time consuming techniques to
characterise electrospun materials. Models provide insight into structure’s behaviour
without a necessity of building and testing multiple prototypes. They are saving
your time, materials and money, at the same time indicating which experiments
are worth performing to provide only interesting information in promising cases.

In this work I present first mechanical Finite Elements model of structure
developed within electrospinning process that anticipates mechanical behaviour
of the materials on the basis of single fibres properties and arrangement. Model
was validated by testing three-dimensional electrospun material with tensile testing.
You will also find here extensive information on properties of single nanofibres and
techniques for their measurement, properties of electrospun fabrics along with
mechanisms taking part in their destruction imaged with Scanning Electron
Microscopy.