Fiber crowding, fiber contacts, and fiber flocculation.
C. T. J. Dodson · TAPPI Journal · 1996
The crowding of fibers in the headbox correlates with the uniformity of the paper. Using statistical geometry, we can estimate the numbers of contacts among fibers. Some formulae are derived to help quantify the effects of fiber properties on flocculation in suspensions. An effect recently reported by Kerekes and Schell is explained quantitatively. The objective is to help predict fiber performance better by obtaining better descriptors of flocculated states. Application : the tendency of a pulp to flocculate can be estimated in terms of the mean aspect ratio of its fibers.