Pulp Suspension

Rheology
James A. Olson, P.Eng.
Pulp and Paper Centre
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
604.822-5705
olson@mech.ubc.ca

General Questions

• What is pulp?
• How do we characterize a pulp suspension?
• What are the key consistency ranges?
• What is the crowding factor?
• What are the regimes of pipe flow?
• How does pulp affect piping head losses?
Why mix pulp fibres with water?

• Pulping process
• Conveying/cleaning media
• Fibre mat
• Hydrogen bonding

Pulp Suspension - The Players

Water Newtonian, ~ 60 deg. C
Pulp mechanical - chemical - recycled
Air operating + quality problems
Fillers e.g. clay, starch
Chemicals retention aids, defoamers
Debris colloidal, pitch, shives, plastic
 Pulp fibres
• Poly-disperse
– Early wood / latewood
– Juvenile / mature
– Hardwood / softwood
– Chemical pulp /
mechanical pulp
– Whole / fragmented

How to characterize a pulp fibre

suspension
• Concentration
– In pulp and paper the concentration is usually called
the “Consistency” and has a slightly different
definition than typical concentration
• Fibre length
– Pretty straightforward …
• Coarseness
– Mass per unit length of fibre
 Pulp Consistency
reflects proportion of fibre and water

M
C
V
C = consistency M = Mass if dry fibres
V = Mass of Suspension (Water + Fibres)

Range of Consistencies
< 0.1% highly dilute - low fibre interaction (whitewater)
0.1 - 1% dilute suspension - free motion (cleaners, headboxes)
1 - 5% thin stock - substantial flocculation (screening)
5 - 15% medium consistency - semi-solid (storage)
15 - 30% high consistency - wet solid (formed paper)
30 - 70% wet web - damp solid (pressed paper)
70 - 100% paper
 Fibre Length
Normalized Fraction
0.15

0.10

0.05

0.00
0 1 2 3 4 5
Length (mm)

Mean Fibre Lengths

• Definitions n l i i
Ln  i

– Number average n i
i

– Length weighted average

(assumes constant n l i i
2

Lw  i
coarseness) n l
i
i i
– Weight weighted
coarseness (assumes
coarseness proportional n l i i
3

Lww  i
to length) n l
i
i i
2
 Coarseness
M
• Definition: Mass per unit length
w
• The lower the coarseness L
– The more fibres per gram
– The thinner the wall thickness / diameter
– The more area available for bonding
– Smoother stronger paper

Crowding Factor (NF)

• The number of fibres in a volume swept out by a
fibre length
• useful in characterizing frequency of interactions

r = aspect ratio (l/d)

 Crowding Factor Derivation
2
d
N f  l 2
fibre volume  2   Nd 3
CV = =
4  l 
3
swept volume 2l 2
 
Cm  Cv 3 2

d2
f l
Coarseness  w  Mass / Length  4
l
4w
fd2 

4w N f 3
Cm 
 l22
Cm l 2 
Nf 
w 6

Crowding Factor
NF < 1 chance collisions
1 < NF < 60 forced collisions
60 < NF continuous contact

NF  4 nC2
nC  contacts per fibre
 Western Red Cedar
NF = 4, 26, 78, 130
Cm = .02, .1, .3, .5 %

Aspen
NF = 1, 3, 17, 34
Cm = .02, .1, .5, 1.0 %

Types of Flocculation
• Chemical flocculation (colloidal)
• Mechanical flocculation
mechanical forces
elastic fibre bending
Mechanical Forces

Elastic Fibre Bending

 Elongational Flow

Flow Through Grid

disruption by stretching (more than 5:1)
not shear
INTERMEDIATE
TURBULENT

PLUG FLOW
INCIPIENT
FLOW

FLOW
 Refloculation Times
CM (%) Velocity (m/s) Time (s)

0.15 0.8 - 1.0 2

0.45 1.2 - 2.0 0.6
1.0 7.6 0.01
2.0 10.2 0.04
3.0 0.01
4.0 0.001

BINGHAM PLASTIC
Shear stress

dV
  
dy

NEWTONIAN
dV
 
dy


Velocity gradient
 Modes of Flow

How does pulp affect piping losses?

Friction loss, dP/dX

A Yield stress
A-B Plug flow with
B H wall contact
PULP
B-C Plug flow with
D water annulus
C
C-D Annulus becomes
turbulent
A WATER D-H True mixed flow

Velocity, V
 How do we design a pump and pipe
systems for such a complex flow?
• Standardized method for pipe design
– TAPPI TIS 0410-14
– “Generalized method for determining the pipe
friction loss of a flowing pulp suspension”

Tappi TIS 0410-14

• Calc Vmax
– Point where annulus starts (B)
V max  K C 
• If V < Vmax calc head as … H
• If V > VMax  FKV  C  D
– Calc Vw (velocity at which it acts just
L
like water
– If Vmax < V < Vw then use Vmax in Vw  1.22C1.44
above
– If V > Vw then calc friction loss as if it
is just water.
• Beware!
– D is in mm
– C is in %
– V in M
– DH/L is head (m) per 100 m of length
 Example
This example looks at how to ‘estimate’ the head loss in pulp pipe flow
Remember the Energy Balance in one dimension (for example, MECH 280, White Ch. 3.6)

 P V2   P V2 
   z     z   h friction  hpump  hturbine
  g 2 g in   g 2 g out
h = head loss/gain (in units of meters)
Tank A contains 1% (Cm) consistency softwood, kraft pulp at 725 CSF at 35 degrees C. The
tank is full to a height of 10m. It is draining through a 100mm diameter smooth stainless steel
pipe into a second tank B. The height of the pulp in Tank B is 2m and both are open to the
atmosphere. If the mean velocity of the pulp in the pipe is 1 m/s and you neglect minor losses,
how long is the pipe connecting the two tanks?

Tank A
1%
SWK
Pulp
10m Tank B

100 mm
2m
The End