Impact of fiberizing method on physical properties of glass wool fibers

The physical properties of the glass fibers and their woven and non-woven products are affected by many factors, such as glass composition, thermal history, melting conditions, and fiberizing method. In this work, we have investigated the impact of fiberizing method on dynamic properties and relaxation behavior of the glass wool fibers, and inferred its effect on the mechanical properties of the filtration mats consisting of glass wool fibers. We have fabricated the glass wool fibers using the rotary (R) and flame (F) attenuation processes, which are denominated as R- and F- fibers, respectively. Both fibers have the same chemical composition and hence similar structural features, surface quality, glass transition temperature (T_g), and sub-T_g enthalpy relaxation behaviors. However, two fibers show striking differences in the surface hydroxyl (OH) content, fictive temperature (T_f) and cooling rate (q_c). F-fibers have weakly hydrogen-bonded surface hydroxy (OH) groups, while R-fibers have free OH groups and strongly hydrogen-bonded OH groups. F-fibers have higher T_f and q_c than R-fibers. We argue that the higher tensile strength of the F-fiber mat (compared to the R-fiber mat) could be attributed to both the weaker hydrogen-bonded surface OH groups, and the higher T_f and q_c values that may increase the tensile strength of fiber itself. This work gives guidance for designing the fiber mat products with high tensile strength.