Multiphase flow in a roll press nip
A three-phase ensemble-averaged model is developed for the flow of water and air through a deformable porous matrix. The model predicts a separation of the flow into saturated and unsaturated regions. The model is closed by proposing an experimentally-motivated heuristic elastic law which allows lar...
Main Authors: | , , , , |
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Format: | Journal article |
Published: |
2002
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Summary: | A three-phase ensemble-averaged model is developed for the flow of water and air through a deformable porous matrix. The model predicts a separation of the flow into saturated and unsaturated regions. The model is closed by proposing an experimentally-motivated heuristic elastic law which allows large-strain nonlinear behaviour to be treated in a relatively straightforward manner. The equations are applied to flow in the 'nip' area of a roll press machine whose function is to squeeze water out of wet paper as part of the manufacturing process. By exploiting the thin-layer limit suggested by the geometry of the nip, the problem is reduced to a nonlinear convection-diffusion equation with one free boundary. A numerical method is proposed for determining the flow and sample simulations are presented. |
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