Paper Number
SF17 

Session
Surfactants, Foams and Emulsions

Title
Experimental investigation of fiber-foam rheology in advanced multiphase forming systems

Presentation Date and Time
October 11, 2022 (Tuesday) 2:50

Track / Room
Track 7 / Ontario

Authors (Click on name to view author profile)

  1. Ahmad, Cameron (Sandia National Labs)
  2. Roberts, Christine (Sandia National Labs)
  3. Rao, Rekha (Sandia National Labs)
  4. Miers, John (Sandia National Labs)
  5. Halls, Benjamin (Sandia National Labs)
  6. Usta, Mustafa (Georgia Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering)
  7. Ranjan, Devesh (Georgia Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering)
  8. Aidun, Cyrus (Georgia Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering)

Author and Affiliation Lines (in printed abstract book)
Cameron Ahmad1, Christine Roberts1, Rekha Rao1, John Miers1, Benjamin Halls1, Mustafa Usta2, Devesh Ranjan2 and Cyrus Aidun2
1Sandia National Labs, Albuquerque, NM 87123; 2Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

Speaker / Presenter 
Ahmad, Cameron

Keywords
consumer products; foams; jammed systems

Text of Abstract
In a 2014 report, the DOE recognized the paper industry as the 3rd largest consumer of energy in the United States, accounting for 13% of the manufacturing energy consumption used nationally. Because water is predominantly the carrier fluid during paper manufacture, evaporative drying at the end of the manufacturing process can account for 2/3 of papermaking energy consumption. Accordingly, fiber foams, where the carrier fluid is a bubbly foam, present a path for a predicted 10%-40% energy savings, without sacrificing product quality. To design industrial processing equipment, a representative fiber foam made of aqueous sodium dodecyl sulfate is examined as a function of gas fraction (20% to 80%), fiber content (0% to 2%), and shear rate ( 0.1 Hz to 1000 Hz). This broad data set encapsulates both jammed foams with roughly 10 second drainage times and bubbly liquids which drain immediately. For the more stable jammed foams, a coupled rheometer and microscopy technique illuminated power law shear thinning behavior sensitive to the gas fraction, at shear rates up to 1000 Hz. High speed imaging techniques are used to investigate the effect of foam microstructure and fiber orientation underpinning the rheological behavior of the foam system. For the less stable bubbly liquids, a pressure driven pipe flow apparatus is designed and utilized. Constitutive models for fiber-laden foam rheology will subsequently inform computational models for designing nozzles and coating processes that will demonstrate the utility of this carrier fluid for the papermaking industry. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. SAND2022-6107 A