Pressure filtration of a non-newtonian fluid from a soft porous-fibre suspensions

纸浆是不列颠哥伦比亚省最大的出口商品，也是加拿大最大的出口产业之一。本研究的直接目的是通过更好地了解加压过滤过程，提高这一战略性行业的竞争力。 加压过滤是一种从悬浮液中去除液体的方法。由于纤维柔软且本身是多孔的，并且载体流体可能通过少量添加水溶性聚合物添加剂而具有非牛顿性质，因此在对造纸悬浮液的这一过程进行建模时出现了困难。这项拟议研究的愿景是 (A)进一步发展我们的浓缩造纸悬浮液加压过滤的数学模型，以考虑广义牛顿流体的情况。 (B)发展一种实验方法，用非牛顿流体描述化学纸浆在一维脱水实验室压力机中的脱水特性 (C)通过与通过x射线计算机断层扫描实验测量的滤饼中的密度梯度进行比较来验证数学模型 这项研究将由1名MASC和3名本科生助理进行，并计划与Eka化学公司开展为期2.5年的合作项目

Pulp is BC's largest export and one of Canada's largest export industries. This research is directly aimed at improving the competitiveness of this strategic industry through a better understanding of the pressure filtration process. Pressure filtration is a method for removing liquids from a suspension. Difficulties arise in modeling this process for papermaking suspensions as the fibres are soft and, are themselves, porous and the carrier fluid may have non-Newtonian properties through small additions of water soluble polymer additives. The vision of this proposed research is (a) To develop further our mathematical model of pressure filtration of concentrated papermaking suspensions to consider the case of a generalized Newtonian fluid. (b) To develop an experimental method to characterize the dewatering of chemical pulps in a 1D dewatering laboratory press with non-Newtonian fluids (c) To validate the mathematical model by comparison to experimentally measured density gradients in the filter cake through x-ray computed tomography A 2.5 year collaborative program with EKA Chemicals is proposed in which the research will conducted by 1 MASc and 3 undergraduate assistants