PREDICTIVE MATEHMATICAL MODEL FOR ABSORBANT SUBSTRATE ACHIEVEMENT, THROUGH ELECTROSPINNING PROCESS

Abstract

The new generations of wound dressings aim to create an optimal environment that allows epithelial cells to move easily in order to support regeneration. Such optimal conditions include a humid environment around the wound bed, efficient oxygen circulation to help regenerate cells and tissues, and low bacterial contamination. Composite matrices have several layers and can be used as primary or secondary dressings. Most composite dressings have three layers, respectively a semi-adherent or non-adherent layer, an absorbent layer, and a bacterial barrier layer. A method to obtaining these materials, which can be assimilated to layerby- layer deposition, or which can be operated in this regime, is represented by electrospinning. However, the deposition technique by electrospinning on textile surfaces (fabrics or nonwovens) raises some problems related to the electrostatic behaviour of textile fibres with dielectric properties. In this case, the characteristics of the jet are affected directly proportional with the thickness of the textile material, resulting in defects of nano- or micro-fibrillar deposition, such as unevenness and/or sputter (formation of drops, which are deposited in mixture with electro spun fibres). The article presents a mathematical model that predicts the diameter of the fibres in the composition of the absorbent layer of the multilayer matrix structure for the treatment of burns or gunshot wounds, taking into account the nonlinear relationships between the parameters explained above and specific theories of electrodynamics for thin profiles (for instance, those used in aeronautics) for the prediction of the behaviour of the electrospinning jet.