2013 Volume 1

The choice of winder type for various web materials has long been a qualitative discussion. Web materials are vast and hence the range of web material properties is also vast. Valid but conflicting opinions for an optimal winder type have been developed from experience bases that represent this vast range of web materials. The purpose of this publication is to quantify how the internal stresses in wound rolls are affected by winder type and web material properties.

The aim of this research is to gain more understanding of the physics of the transportation of materials having viscoelastic characteristics, high transport speeds, a small thickness and a large surface area. This study introduces new models that take into account both material viscoelasticity and the fluid-structure interaction between the travel- ling material and the surrounding owing fluid. A web (continuum) travelling between two fixed supports is considered, modelling the web as a Kelvin–Voigt type viscoelastic panel and the air ow as a potential ow. Stability of the system is studied with the help of its eigenfrequencies (eigenvalues) for two different types of ow geometries. First, a ow inside an enclosure with a rectangular cross-direction, through which the panel is travelling, is added to the equations of out-of-plane motion of the panel with the help of added mass coefficients. Secondly, a free stream potential ow obstructed by the travelling panel is analyzed using the analytical solution for the aerodynamic reaction pressure. Some numerical examples are given for both models.

When the dry content during pulp drying reaches a level above 75% to 80% the free water, i.e. unbound water, has been evaporated. The remaining water is bonded to the surface due to physisorption, additional energy is necessary to overcome these bonding effects. This additional energy is called heat of sorption. At 80oC and a dry content of 95% for unbleached softwood kraft pulp the evaporation energy increases up to 2800 kJ per kg water compared to the latent heat of water of about 2300 kJ/kg at the same temperature.

Different measuring methods to determine the heat of sorption HS are described in the literature, the reported values for HS of pulp show large differences. The first aim of this work is to compare the results of different measurement methods using the same sample pulp. We investigated calculation of HS from sorption isotherms collected with a conventional climate chamber (ESC) and differential vapor sorption (DVS) analysis. Furthermore we applied direct measurement of the heat flux generated by sorption using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), differential scanning calorimetry combined with thermogravimetric analysis (DSC/TGA) and reaction calorimetry (RC). All but one measurement method delivered consistent results in the range of HS=40 kJ/kg to 70 kJ/kg additional energy due to surface sorption. The advantages and disadvantages of the different measurement techniques are discussed.

In the second part of this work the impact of pulping and pulp treatment on the heat of sorption has been investigated. Refining and bleaching seems to have no impact. Pre drying reduces the overall heat of sorption by 15 %. The addition of inorganic fillers to paper reduces its heat of sorption due to a negligible HS of the filler.

In conclusion the total additional energy caused by sorption effects is less than 2% of the overall energy necessary to fully dry the pulp. Additionally the heat of sorption is nearly unaffected by pulping, bleaching, refining or pre-drying of the pulp. Therefor the heat of sorption HS is playing only a minor role for industrial applications of paper drying.

A rheometric method based on velocity pro ling simultaneously by optical coherence tomography and the ultrasound velocity profilometry was introduced and used in a preliminary study of the rheological and boundary layer ow properties of micro fibrillated cellulose. The two velocity pro ling methods appear adequate and complementary for rheological characterization of opaque complex fluids. The ultrasound method is useful in measuring the velocity profile in the interior parts of the tube, while the optical technique is capable of high-resolution measurement of the boundary layer ow close to the tube wall.

The preliminary results obtained for a 0.4% micro-fibrillated cellulose suspension show typical shear thinning behaviour in the interior part of the tube while the near wall behaviour shows existence of a slip layer of thickness ~200 m. Both the velocity profile measurement and the imaging mode data obtained by the optical coherence tomographic method indicate that the slip layer is related to a concentration gradient appearing near the tube wall. In a sublayer of thick- ness ~100 m, the fluid appears nearly Newtonian, and the viscosity value approaches that of pure water with decreasing distance from the wall.

It is widely accepted and discussed in the literature that fiber morphological parameters like fiber length, fiber curl and fiber flexibility affect flocculation phenomena and the properties of the fiber network in suspension via mechanical entanglement and forces arising at fiber to fiber contact points. The focus of this work is the interrelation of the parameters floc size distribution, network strength and fiber morphology. Pulp samples of different length distribution, fiber curl, kink index and fiber flexibility are evaluated concerning their flocculation tendency and the strength of the fiber network using methods already established in the literature. The simultaneous measurement allows the investigation of the interrelation of these parameters. It is shown that floc size distribution and network strength are highly correlated. Still, depending on the morphological properties fiber curl, kink index and fiber flexibility, samples of comparable floc size distribution and different network strength (and vice versa) are evident.

In this work we characterize the size of the plug using ultrasound Doppler velocimetry (UDV) as a function of ow rate for dilute, i.e. less than 2% consistency, papermaking suspensions in a 50 mm diameter, 10 m long cylindrical pipe. The plug size was determined through analysis of local spatial and temporal variations of the velocity, strain- rate and the fluctuating component of velocity. With this, we were able to estimate the yield stress of the suspension through knowledge of the applied pressure gradient and find the yield stress to be in the range of 2–10 Pa, depending upon the consistency and Reynolds number Re. We observe complex behavior with the plug in which we see initially that with increasing velocity, the plug diminishes through a densification-type mechanism in a response to an increase frictional pressure drop. At higher Re, it diminishes through an erosion-type behavior. We estimate the critical Reynolds number Re_c for the disappearance of the plug to be Re_c ~ 105.