The polymer air-drawing model of polyethylene terephthalate spunbonding nonwovens and the air jet flow field model in wide slot positive pressure spunbonding process have been established. The influence of the density and the specific heat capacity of polymer melt at constant pressure changing with polymer temperature on the fiber diameter have been studied, which is solved by introducing the numerical computation results of the air jet flow field of attenuator. It is simulated by means of the finite difference method. The predicted fiber diameter agrees with the experimental data. The effects of the processing parameters on the fiber diameter with the help of the image analysis method have been investigated. A higher inlet pressure, smaller slot width, and smaller jet angle will all cause higher z-axis position of air velocity and air pressure, which are beneficial to the air drawing of the polymer melt and thus to reducing the fiber diameter. The experimental results show that the agreement between the results and experimental data is better, which verifies the reliability of these models. The results present great prospects for this research in the field of computer assisted design of spunbonding process, technology, and equipment. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:231-242, 2015. (c) 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers