Determination of Wet Fiber Strength

Abstract

This study presents a method for measuring the strength of wet pulp fibers. It is derived from the breaking stress of wet paper strips at a zero span and the number of fibers bearing the load. Measurement was car-ried out with thermomechanical and chemical pulps under various levels of refining. In the results we obtained, there is a significant correlation between the strength of individual fibers and the degree of treatment, while the tra-ditional zero-span tensile method does not indicate this. The calculated strength could be interpreted as a measure of the resistance of fibers to damage under mechanical treatment and development of fibers in the refining process.