Specific surface and effective volume of water-swollen pulp fibres by a permeability method

Specific surface area per unit swollen fibre volume and the porosity of bed at a fibre concentration of 1.0kg/m³ were estimated by a permeability model. Water permeability data for the uniform pads of bleached kraft wood pulp fibre in the fibre concentration range of 108 to 415 kg/m³ were employed. The model coupled a nonlinear correlation between porosity and fibre concentration with the Kozeny-Carman equation. The model could be applied to a wide fibre concentration range and provided estimates of the swollen fibre specific surface area and the effective specific volume.