Shear modulus of single wood pulp fibers from torsion tests

Cellulose - The shear modulus of pulp fibers is difficult to measure and only very little literature is available on this topic. In this work we are introducing a method to measure this fiber...     

The number of harmonic frames of prime order

Harmonic frames of prime order are investigated. The primary focus is the enumeration of inequivalent harmonic frames, with the exact number given by a recursive formula. The key to this result is a one-to-one correspondence developed between inequivalent harmonic frames and the orbits of a particular set. Secondarily, the symmetry group of prime order harmonic frames is shown to contain a subgroup consisting of a diagonal matrix as well as a permutation matrix, each of which is dependent on the particular harmonic frame in question.     

Imaging of the formerly bonded area of individual fibre to fibre joints with SEM and AFM

Besides the determination of the force and the energy needed to break individual fibre to fibre joints, the investigation of the formerly bonded area (FBA) is of essential importance to learn more about the failure mechanisms of fibre–fibre bonds in general. In this study the surfaces of paper fibres and the FBA of fibre–fibre joints after the determination of the breaking force as well as the bonding energy were analysed by means of low voltage scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. A comparison between the contact zone of fibres broken at different loading rates as well as under cyclic loading showed that there seems to be no significant difference in the appearance of the FBA in these cases. Only minor delamination of the cell wall could be found in the bonding zone, which indicates no mechanical interlocking of fibrils in the bonding zone. Furthermore, it is shown that some glues used for specimen preparation of fibre–fibre bond strength measurement are forming a glue film on the fiber surface and migrate into the bonding region.     

Investigating mechanisms deteriorating the dispersibility of biodegradable and flushable wet wipes

Cellulose - Wet wipe dispersibility is broadly discussed since they have been detected in massive fatbergs that were found in sewer systems of big cities, e.g., London. Dispersibility describes a...     

Conservative methods for the Toda lattice equations

We are concerned with the numerical integration of the Todalattice equations by using different conservative methods. Numericalexperiments suggest that the global error for isospectral schemesdecreases exponentially with time but it is almost constantfor either symplectic or more general integrators. We providea theoretical explanation for these experimental findings.     

Analysis of precipitated lignin on kraft pulp fibers using atomic force microscopy

A method is presented which enables analysis of lignin precipitated on the surface of kraft pulp fibers. As experimental input, high-resolution atomic force microscopy phase images of the fiber surfaces have been recorded in tapping mode. A digital image analysis procedure—based on the watershed algorithm—is applied to distinguish between cellulose fibrils and the precipitated lignin. In this way, size distributions for the diameter of lignin precipitates on pulp fiber surfaces can be obtained. In an initial application of the method, three softwood kraft pulps were analyzed: a black liquor cook with a very high content of precipitated lignin, a bleached pulp where nearly no precipitated lignin is visible and an unbleached industrial pulp. The proposed method is suggested as an appropriate tool to investigate the kinetics of lignin precipitation and the structure of lignin precipitates in pulping and bleaching.