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A moisture-dependent and temperature-dependent constitutive model for paper materials was proposed and implemented into a finite element model of the paper hydroforming process. Experimental hydroforming was conducted at temperatures of 23°C and 110 °C and moisture contents of 6.9 and 10.6 (respectively corresponding to 50 and 80% relative humidity). The proposed model, which also included the effects of drying, captured the extent of forming of all experimental results within reasonable accuracy. For the moisture content and temperature conditions in this study, the phenomenon of drying was found to be the reason why the application of temperature had a much greater effect on the degree of forming than hydroforming at various moisture contents. A simulation-based parametric study was conducted in order to identify the importance of various process and material parameters. This parametric study confirmed many previous empirical findings and was capable of quantifying the extent to which these process and material parameters affect the three-dimensional formability of paper. The coefficient of friction was identified as one of the most important factors when determining the extent of forming. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work is built on a previous research by Wiryana and Berg, in which wicking into four wet-formed paper stripes, consisting of cellulose fibers and four different percentages of the powdered carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) superabsorbent, was studied experimentally. Because of the swelling of cellulose fibers and CMC powder on contact with water, the wicking was accompanied by a swelling of the matrix. A finite element/control volume (FE/CV)-based computer program is used for the first time to model the wicking in such swelling porous medium. The simulation used a novel form of continuity equation, which included the effects of liquid absorption and matrix swelling, in conjunction with the Darcy's law to model the single-phase flow behind a clearly defined liquid-front. A new method of estimating the time-varying permeability of the paper, based on the absorbed liquid-mass vs. time plots, is also proposed. Later, this time-dependent permeability is used in the numerical simulation to change the permeability in elements behind the moving liquid-front as a function of the time that the element has been wetted by the liquid, since the passage of the liquid-front. The numerical prediction of the wicking-front location as a function of time compares well with the reported experimental data. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 58: 2536-2544, 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]