The drying stage of a papermachine is the greatest energy consumer of the papermaking process. To improve the efficiency of papermaking and reduce the production cost, gaining a better understanding of the effect of different parameters on the drying process is crucial. In the drying stage, dryer fabrics provide mechanical support to paper to increase the runnability and efficiency of the drying process and to prevent non-uniformity and wrinkling. In this research, the effect of the dryer fabric characteristics on paper drying is investigated experimentally. Novel optical measurement techniques are developed and utilized to quantify the moisture content accurately. It is shown that the dryer fabric structure has a remarkable impact on the drying that has not been observed before. The results of this research will lead to the design and development of more efficient fabrics that can reduce the energy cost significantly.

• Through air drying (TAD) provides the highest drying rate compared to other traditional paper drying techniques such as contact drying and impingement drying. In TAD, hot air or combustion products pass through the paper (or textile) in order to evaporate the water.

• I also studied the effect of the dryer fabric, air flowrate and temperature on the drying of paper in through air drying (TAD). The developed optical method is used to measure the moisture content of paper with high spatiotemporal resolution. 

• A custom experimental setup was designed and built to apply and monitor different drying conditions during the through air drying process. Moisture content, temperature and pressure drop were measured during the experiments as the main parameters that define the drying efficiency.