Experimental study of the forming process: fluid velocity and fluid-fiber interaction measurements, 2008 PAPERCON Conference

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A study of the flow in the direct vicinity of a forming wire and a fiber network during forming is reported. The measurements are performed with Particle Image Velocimetry in a scaled system. Index-of-refraction matching is used to gain optical access to the flow. Time resolved measurements of the flow velocity in the vertical and horizontal direction is obtained in a plane with a size of 60 x 40 fiber diameters. The spatial resolution is 2 fiber diameters. Data is obtained for three drainage velocities and two different lengths of the fibers. The relative level of the velocity fluctuations are found to decrease with drainage velocity and is higher in the flow above a network mat of shorter fibers compared to the network made of longer fibers. The size of the flow structures is obtained by spectral analysis and compared for the six cases.