Single fibre flexibility measurement in a flow cell based device

Single fibre flexibility is widely recognised as an important parameter in the papermaking process. A novel flow cell based method for its measurement was developed at the Institute for Paper, Pulp and Fibre Technology at Graz University of Technology. A special flow channel geometry is used to induce high shear forces in a laminar flow regime. The movement of single fibres passing the highly sheared region is recorded by means of a high speed image acquisition system. Based on the reactions of the fibres to the fluid forces a flexibility parameter is determined for each evaluated fibre.