Computational modeling of charge dissipation of fabrics containing conductive fibers

Uncontrolled electrostatic discharges from charged personnel create a significant risk of hazards or product damage in the chemical and electronics industry. This paper deals with the theoretical modeling of the electrostatic properties of fabrics containing conductive fibers concentrating on the charge dissipation mechanisms involved. According to the simulations, the effect of corona discharge was shown to be surprisingly strong leading to extremely rapid neutralization of the charges on the fabric. However, some deviation from the theory may be expected in practice due to the unpredictable irregularities in the fine structure of fabrics and fibers. When the corona onset field was not exceeded, the charge decay was shown to mainly depend on the conductivity and dielectric properties of the base fabric, instead of the properties of the conductive yarns, provided they can be considered significantly more conductive than the base fabric. Without corona the geometric structure, especially the interval between the grounded conductive yarns, was only seen to change the effective surface potential observed, as assumed in the model, while the charge decay rate appeared to be practically unchanged.