The focus of this paper is on simulating the in-plane and through penetration of liquid water in virtual nonwovens. We have considered a series of unsteady state two-phase (air-water) simulations performed in two-dimensional geometries obtained from asimulated three-dimensional fiber mat. The simulation planes are the cross sectional planes in horizontal and vertical directions. We compared the penetration rate and patterns of liquid water in hydrophilic and non-hydrophilic nonwovens. The simulations successfully revealed the strong dependence of the liquid penetration front on the fiber orientation distribution as well as the hydrophilic properties of the fibers. Our results are in good qualitative agreement with our experimental data.
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