Abstract
The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between water vapor diffusion properties and the pore structure of paper. Gas-phase molecular diffusivity of water vapor through pores was determined based on the kinetic theory of gas. A mathematical model was derived to characterize the dimensional changes of the pore caused by the fiber-swelling mechanism. A modified-Fickean diffusion model was designed to simulate the water-vapor diffusion phenomena in porous paper web. Structural characterisocs of paper pores including the tortuosity and the shape factor was studied on a theoretical basis of Knudsen flow diffusion. Results are summarized as follows: 1. The theoretical water vapor diffusivity in gas-phase was 0.092$cm^2$ /min, 2. Porosity was inversely proportional to the degree of wet-swelling of paper, 3. Solid-phase water-diffusivity of fiber was 1.2 $ \times 10^{-5}cm^2/min$, 4. Modified diffusion model was fairly consistent to the experimental data (from part I), and 5. The Fickean pore tortuosity, ranging from 1,000 to 2,500, was in inverse proportion to the porosity of paper, and the Knudsen shape factor and length-angle factor for micro-pores in paper were 0.5~3.5 and about 340, respectively.
