Recent Progress and Challenges in the Numerical Modeling of Coating Structure Development, 2006 TAPPI Advanced Coating Fundamentals Symposium

Understanding how the coating structures are developed and what are the factors affecting them is essential for the control of the end-use performance of coated papers and the on-machine runnability of coating colors. Robert Hagemeyer recognized already in the early sixties with his pioneering work using magnified plastic models and centrifugation experiments the need for a better fundamental understanding of dynamics of the coating structure development. With the beginning of the computer era, various probabilistic and deterministic numerical approaches have been proposed to model coating structure development and have thrown already some light on some important aspects of its dynamics, such as the impact of solids content, dewatering and drying rate, and particle size, shape and friction. In this paper, those various models will be shortly described, confronted with experiments, and their most important findings will be reviewed. In this context, their current limitations and the remaining challenges, such as the modeling of the impact of binders and calendering, will be highlighted and some possible improvements proposed.