Flow phenomena and paper forming

The channel flow phenomena of the University of Melbourne's Stationary Wire Laboratory Former were investigated to further the understanding of the ef fect of flow conditions on sheet properties. The flow phenomena above the w ire in the z-MD plane immediately prior to and during dewatering were inves tigated using images collected with a 16mm high-speed cine camera (200 fram es per second). The flow regimes were observed to be consistent with pipe f low studies in that a plug flow with a turbulent boundary layer was evident . The mechanism of forming was found to be via a boundary layer filtration process. The Froude number characterised the hydraulic behaviour of the sys tem.