1st Nordic Drying Conference - NDC'01, Trondheim, Norway, June 27-29, 2001

A FIBER NETWORK MODEL FOR ANALYZING THREE TRANSPORT PROCESSES IN SHEETS OF PAPER Lars Nilsson Karlstad University, Division for Chemistry, Chemical Engineering 651 88 Karlstad, Sweden, E-mail: Lars.Nilsson@kau.se Keywords: fiber network, capillary flow, cellulose fibers, aspect ratio ABSTRACT The capillary absorption of liquid into paper was analyzed in terms of a fiber network model. The fiber network model is two-dimensional, assumes the fibers to be band-shaped and contains one parameter characterizing the shape of the fibers, the fiber aspect ratio. This parameter is used for fitting measured and calculated absorption rates. The absorption of non-swelling liquid (silicon oil) into hand sheets of unbeaten softwood sulphate pulp is adequately described by the model when a fiber aspect ratio of 4 is used. This value of the fiber aspect ratio is physically realistic and it agrees well with values taken for describing vapor diffusion and gas flow through the same sheets.

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