| Summary: | In about 30 years of experiments and development, impulse drying is now considered as a well known technology and a good candidate in the constant effort to save energy in the paper industry. The drying section is indeed the most expensive section in the process of paper production. However, this potential technology has a major disadvantage, stopping its implementation in the industry. Paper, which is a porous material with a variable compressibility, experienced a sudden release of energy at the nip opening during impulse drying. Under these conditions of high intensity process (both in temperature and pressure), the fiber mat has a tendency to delaminate. This web disruption is a critical issue against impulse drying.
This thesis comes up with a new approach to the problem. These last years, the technology itself has been addressed in this issue and many improvements have been reached in terms of energy release (heat transfer control, material coating ). The novel idea is then to investigate the inner structure of the paper once it has been coated with starch to a large extent (up to 10 or 20% of the relative basis weight). Starch is known for its large use in industry, but also its capability to expand under high temperature. Hence, both relative strength and bulking effects are investigated in this thesis, using numerous experiments with variable temperatures and pressures, along with ultrasonic testing and image analysis. We have the opportunity to appreciate the phenomenon of heat transfer and mass transport in the coated medium, while reaching promising results in terms of strength and bulk. These are finally investigated using scanning electron microscopy as a first step toward a pore expansion model for starch imbued handsheets.
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