H.

Hashimoto
Professor,
Dean of Graduate School of Engineering
e-mail: hiromu@keyaki.cc.u-tokai.ac.jp

M. Okajima
Graduate Student
Tokai University,
1117 Kitakaname, Hiratsuka-shi,
Kanagawa-ken 259-1292, Japan

Theoretical and Experimental

Investigations Into Spacing
Characteristics Between Roller
and Three Types of Webs With
Different Permeabilities
A new theoretical model for estimating the entrained air film thickness between a web
and roller is presented for both impermeable and permeable webs. A simple curve fit
formula for estimating the air film thickness, which considers the effects of air leakage
from the web edges and air diffusion due to the permeability of web, was obtained based
on a large number of simultaneous numerical solutions of the compressible Reynolds
equation and the web equilibrium equation. The variation of air film thickness with roller
velocity is measured for three typical webs: polyethylene terephthalate, coated paper, and
newsprint. The effects of web permeability, web width, and web tension on the air film
thickness are examined theoretically and experimentally for a wide range of roller velocity. Reasonable agreement is seen both quantitatively and qualitatively between the predicted and measured results. The validity of the formula for the first-order estimation of
web-roller interface problems is verified experimentally. DOI: 10.1115/1.2164463

Introduction
Continuous flexible thin materials such as paper, textiles, filters,
plastic films, and thin metal plates are sometimes called webs.
Web transport systems are very important in manufacturing such
materials. Moving webs and rotating rollers bring the surrounding
air between a web and a roller due to the viscosity of the air and
the web-roller interface behaves as a self-acting foil bearing. As a
result, the entrained air forms what is called soft elastohydrodynamic lubrication EHL air film inside the gap and causes a
decrease of traction between the web and the roller. If the air film
thickness is increased to a level greater than the combined asperity
heights of the web and the roller surfaces, the available traction is
due only to the fluid film friction which is equivalent to zero
friction. In the case of an idler roller driven by the web, insufficient traction results in a lower speed of the roller than the web
and then reduces the tracking ability of the web which subsequently causes web defects. As this decrease in traction is a direct
result of air entrainment between the web and the roller, it is
important to predict the air film thickness accurately for controlling the traction in many web handling applications.
The first step in modeling the web-roller interface problems
requires a numerical model for estimating the air film thickness
between the web and the roller. This problem is similar to tapehead interface problems in magnetic storage systems. A number of
published papers related to tape-head interface problems are available in the literature. When the tape width is much larger than the
tape length wrapped over the head, the tape has been assumed to
be infinitely wide. Under such an assumption, Block and van Rossum 1 and Eshel and Elrod 2 solved the incompressible Reynolds equation combined with the foil equilibrium equation and
presented a closed-form formula for estimating the air film thickness. The direct numerical calculation of a one-dimensional tapehead interface model has been presented by Stahl et al. 3, and
Granzow and Lebeck 4. The results by these authors are essenContributed by the Tribology Division of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF
TRIBOLOGY. Manuscript received February 25, 2004; final manuscript received
October 6, 2005. Review conducted by Michel Fillon.

Journal of Tribology

tially the same as the results by Eshel and Elrod. On the other
hand, Ono et al. 5, Moes 6, Muftu and Benson 7, and
Lakshmikumaran and Wickert 8 employed two-dimensional
analyses which consider the effect of tape width. The main aims
of these papers are to improve the convergence of the numerical
solutions, and as far as the authors know, there has been no attempt to derive a closed-form formula for estimating the air film
thickness based on a two-dimensional foil bearing model.
In modeling web-roller interface problems, the effect of web
width is important because the web width can vary from very
narrow to very wide in the actual applications. In addition to the
finite width effect, the air diffusion due to web permeability has a
significant effect on the air film thickness in the case of permeable
webs such as paper, textile and filters. References related to the
numerical modeling of the air film thickness which include the
effects of both web width and permeability are very limited.
Ducotey and Good 9 derived a closed formula for predicting the
air film thickness based on one-dimensional foil bearing model
considering the effect of web permeability, web width, wrap
angle, and side leakage. Muftu and Altan 10 presented a model
for analyzing the interfacial conditions of a porous web moving
over a cylindrical rigid guide, in which the porous web is modeled
as a moving cylindrically curved beam, and the solid-body contact
between the web and the guide is modeled using an asperity compliance function.
In this paper, a new theoretical model for estimating the entrained air film thickness between the web and the roller is presented for both impermeable and permeable webs. A simple
closed-form formula for predicting the air film thickness is suggested, which includes the effects of both air leakage from web
edges and air diffusion due to permeability. The predicted results
of air film thickness are compared with the measured data, and the
validity of the model is experimentally verified.

Theoretical Modeling
Figure 1 shows an example of a web transport system, in which
the moving web is supported by several kinds of rollers. In such
transport systems, it is very important to understand the spacing

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d=

1
RB
x+
2R
2
0

RB
RB
x
2
2

1
RB
x
2R
2

RB
2

RB
2

The boundary conditions for Reynolds equation 1 are

Fig. 1 Example of web transportation systems papermaking
machine

pxs,z = pa,

and friction characteristics between the web and the roller. The
web-roller interface problem is similar to the tape-head interface
problem and the self-acting foil bearing model as shown in Fig. 2
may be applicable to theoretically treat problem. Thus, the closedform formula for estimating the air film thickness will be derived
for the impermeable web in the first step.
The air film pressure generated in the gap between the web and
the roller is given by the following compressible Reynolds equation 11,12:

ph
3 p
3 p
h p
+
h p
= 6U
x
z
x
x
z

In the derivation of web equilibrium equation, the following

three assumptions were made: i The effect of web stiffness on
the web deflection is much smaller than that of web tension because the web is very thin when compared to the width and length
dimensions. ii The web deflection is nearly constant in the axial
direction of the roller except for the deflection near both edges of
web. iii The effect of contact pressure due to asperities on the
web deflection can be neglected because the contact pressure between the web and roller surfaces is relatively low and it can be
considered as a secondary effect on the web deflection.
Under such assumptions, the web equilibrium equation can be
simplified as the following form:

2w 1
T
T 2 =
x
R
L

wxs = 0,

2w
x2

5b

wxe = 0

2w
x2

= 0,
x=xs

h =

h
,
R2/3

p =

B
,
1/3

p pa
,
T/R

=
w

d
,
R3/2

6a
6b

=0
x=xe

w
,
R2/3

x =

L
,
2R1/3

x
z
, z =
R1/3
L
=

6U
T
7

Using these quantities, the governing Eqs. 1 through 4 and the

boundary conditions 5 and 6 are normalized as follows:

3 p
ph
1 3 p
h p
+ 2
h p
=6
4 z
x
z
x
x

2w
=
x2

The relation between air film thickness and web deflection is expressed by the following equation:

pdz

0.5

10

x +
2
2

x
2
2

px
s,z
= 0,

px
, 0.5 = 0,
x
s = 0,
w

2w
x2

= 0,

x=x
s

0.5

h = w
+

where the shape function d is defined as follows:

Fig. 2 Foil bearing model for web-roller interface

L
= pa
2

where xs and xe indicate the coordinates of inlet and outlet boundaries of web-roller interface, and these are the unknown variables.
In the numerical analysis of air film thickness and pressure
distributions, the following normalized quantities are used:

L/2

h=w+d

p x,

The boundary conditions for web equilibrium equation 2 are

given by

L/2

p padz

L
= p a,
2

p x,

5a

pxe,z = pa

x
2
2

x
2

px
e,z
= 0

12a

px
,0.5 = 0
x
e = 0
w

2w
x2

11

12b
13a

=0

13b

x=x
e

Equations 8 through 10 were discritized by the finite difference method and solved simultaneously by applying the NewtonRaphson iterative scheme subject to the boundary conditions 12
and 13a until the convergence condition was satisfied, and the
nondimensional air film thickness and pressure distributions were
obtained. The unknown values of xs and xe were determined itera-

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Fig. 5 Numerical solution of nondimensional air film thickness valid for > 6

Fig. 3 Flow chart of calculation procedure of nondimensional

pressure distribution and air film thickness

tively to satisfy the condition 13b. All converging conditions

were set at 0.01% relative error. The flow chart of calculation
procedure is shown in Fig. 3.
In the present model, the Reynolds equation is two dimensional
and the web equilibrium equation, averaged in the axial direction,
is one dimensional. Thus, the model presented in this paper is not
exactly two dimensional. However, the effect of web width can be
estimated by this 1.5-dimensional model with an acceptable accuracy as shown in subsequent experiments.

Typical numerical results of air film thickness and pressure distributions are shown in Fig. 4 for the normalized wrap angle of
= 9.0, in which the parameter is used to show the effect of web
width. As has been already pointed out by Eshel and Elrod 2, as
the amount of air leakage from both edges of web decreases with
an increase of , the air film thickness increases and becomes
constant in the direction of web travel. The pressure spike and the
local contraction of air film thickness distribution near the outlet
boundary of web-roller interface can be seen in these results. The
numerical calculations were carried out by changing the value of
normalized wrap angle . It was found that an increase in the
wrap angle lengthens the central part of air film thickness distribution where the air film pressure is nearly constant, while the
inlet and outlet regions remain the same shapes in the case of
6.
The normalized air film thickness distribution at the center of
= 0 is shown in Fig. 5 for various values of parameter .
web z
As can be seen in the figure, the numerical solutions converge to
the solutions of infinitely wide web at the inlet and outlet of the
web wrapped region and the solutions take minimum values near
/ 2. For 7, the air
the outlet of the web wrapped region x
film thickness becomes constant in the central region of wrap
angle over 90% of web-roller interface. Considering these char-

Fig. 4 Numerical results of nondimensional pressure distribution and air film thickness for = 9.0

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Fig. 7 Air diffusion model for permeable web

Fig. 6 Approximation of air film thickness in the central region

acteristics of numerical solutions, a closed-form formula for predicting the air film thickness can be derived as explained below.
The plots in Fig. 6 show the variation of normalized air film
= 0 and z
thickness at the central point of the wrapped region x
= 0 with the parameter . Applying the least mean square method
to the numerical results, indicated by the plots, the following
approximate relation between the normalized air film thickness h0
and the parameter is obtained:
h0

1.614 1.764
h0
= 0.589
+
R2/3

14

Using this relation which accounts for the considerable decrease in the air film thickness from the solution for the infinitely
wide web h0 = 0.589, and assuming that the air film thickness
decreases linearly at the inlet region and become constant at the
central region which occupies the major region of wrap angle, the
closed form formula for predicting the air film thickness distribution between the web and roller surfaces is obtained as follows:
hx = R2/30.589 + fgx

15

value of becomes as = 7.14 7 for the minimum value of the

web parameter of 1/3 = 35.7. In the case of a small wrap angle of
B = / 12 rad =15 deg, the value of normalized wrap angle
becomes as = 9.34 6 for the minimum value of the web parameter of 1/3 = 35.7. Therefore, it is verified that the applicable
range of 6 and 7 covers the almost all ranges of applications for web transport systems.
Next, utilizing Eq. 15 for the impermeable web, a closed-form
formula for permeable web is derived. The nomenclature for the
air diffusion model is defined in Fig. 7. In the case of a permeable
web, part of the entrained air between the web and the roller
escapes from the web surface, thus the air film thickness will be
less than the results predicted from Eq. 15 for impermeable web.
Employing Darcys law, the relation between the volumetric flow
rate through a permeable web and the pressure difference is given
as
h =

gx =

1 + 2x/RB1 a RB/2 x aRB/2

1

aRB/2 x RB/2

16
17

The dot-dashed lines in Fig. 5 show the results calculated from

Eq. 15, in which the value of shape factor is determined as a
= 0.9. Acceptable agreement less than 3% relative error can be
seen in quantities, between the numerical results and the results
calculated from Eq. 15 when 6 and 7.
Table 1 shows the variation of web parameter 1/3 with transport velocity U and web tension T in the application of a web
transport systems. In the case of a narrow web of L / 2R = 0.2, the

18

tp

where the pressure difference p and the time required for a specific air volume to flow through a given area under a certain
pressure difference t are given approximately as follows:

where the functions f and gx are defined as follows:

f = 1.614/ + 1.764/2

t f

T
,
R

2x + RB/2
U

19

Substitution of Eq. 19 into Eq. 18 yields the following equation:

h =

k TB

t f U

1+

2x
RB

20

The air film thickness for permeable web is obtained by subtracting the film thickness due to permeability from the air film
thickness for a finite width web 13
h = h h
=R2/30.589 + fgx R1 + 2x/RB

for h 0
21a

Table 1 Variation of web parameter 1/3 with velocity U and

tension T

and
h=0

for h 0

21b

where the normalized web permeability is defined as

kTB

t f RU

22

It follows from Eqs. 21a and 22 that the air film thickness h
decreases with an increase of web permeability k, web tension T,
or wrap angle B, and decreases with a decrease of web thickness
t f and velocity U.
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Table 2 Experimental conditions

Parameter

Specification

Material of roller
Roller radius R m
Roller velocity Ur m/s
Web width L m
Tension T N/m
Web wrap angle B deg
RMS roughness of roller Rrq m
Maximum roughness height of roller Rr

Fig. 8 Overview of test rig

Measurements of Air Film Thickness

To verify the applicability of Eq. 21 to the web-roller interface
problems, the air film thickness between the web and roller surfaces was measured for three kinds of typical webs.
Figure 8 shows the overview of the test rig for measuring the
spacing and friction characteristics between the web and roller
surfaces. The test rig consists of roller, driving motor, guides,
web, weight, speed controller, load cell, optical fiber type gap
sensor, and static electricity eliminator. The web is stationary and
the roller is rotated by the driving motor. The amplitude of roller
vibration under the rotation is less than 1 m, and there is minimal effect on the measurements of air film thickness. The wrap
angle of the web about the roller can be changed from 30 deg to
120 deg by adjusting the guides. The web tension is set by varying the dead weight, and the tension increase due to friction between the web and roller surfaces is measured using the load cell.
The optical fiber type displacement sensor is used for measuring
the air film thickness and the resolution of the sensor is 50 nm.
The position of sensor can be changed continuously in both axial
and circumferential directions on the rails as shown in Fig. 8.
Under the conditions of low relative humidity, the static electricity
may affect the measured results, thus during the tests the static
electricity eliminator was operated.
Three webs with different permeabilities, PET polyethylene
telephthalate, coated paper, and uncoated paper, newsprint,
were used in the measurements. PET is impermeable but coated
paper and newsprint are porous and permeable as shown in scanning electron microscopy SEM image in Fig. 9. The origin of
measurements is set up while the roller is stationary and the web
is pressed on the roller surface by the weight. The measurements
are repeated at least ten times under given conditions and the web
was replaced for each measurement. Table 2 shows the experimental conditions, and Table 3 shows the physical properties of
tested webs, respectively.
The surface roughness of the roller was measured directly by
the cofocused laser microscope at ten positions around the roller.

max

SCM440
0.055
013.0
0.035
80
60
0.751
3.87

The averaged values of rms roughness and maximum roughness

heights are listed in Table 2. The error of measurements was less
than 10%.
In Table 3 the web permeability k measured by Gurleys air
permeability method based on Darcys law is given. In this
method, the permeability k is given by
k = 2.191 109

tf
t

23

where t is the time required for a specific air volume of 1.0

103 m3 to flow through the permeable layer with the area of
642 mm2 under the applied load of 5.64 N. The measurements
were repeated five times and the error was less than 3%. The
surface roughness and thickness of webs were measured directly
by the cofocused laser microscope at ten points within the
wrapped region. The error of measurements was less than 10%.
The modulus E1 and E2 are the Youngs modulus of webs in the
longitudinal direction machine direction and the axial direction
cross direction, respectively. The averaged values of five times
measurements are listed in the table.

Results and Discussions

The measured results of air film thickness between the web and
roller surfaces are compared with the predicted results from Eq.
21. The applicability of Eq. 21 to the web-roller interface problems is discussed in the following.
Figure 10 shows the air film thickness distribution in the circumferential direction for various values of transport velocity
U=Ur + Uw, in which the plots indicate the measured results and
the continuous lines are the results predicted from Eq. 21. The
measured results in Fig. 10a were obtained by the authors for the
coated paper, and the results in Figs. 10b and 10c were obtained by Ducotey and Good 13 for PET and newsprint, respectively. The roller radius and the web width in the Ducotey and
Good test rig are much larger than those with the presented test
rig. In the figures, the error bars showing the scatter range of
measured data are omitted for avoiding the complexity. The scatter range is comparable to the ranges in the results shown later in
Fig. 12.
In Fig. 10a, the air film thickness distributions in the circumferential and axial directions are presented, in which only the air
film thickness distributions for half the web width in the axial
Table 3 Physical properties of tested webs

Fig. 9 SEM image for surface topography of tested papers

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Fig. 11

Fig. 10 Air film thickness distribution in the web transporting

direction

direction is shown due to geometric symmetry. To emphasize the

variation of air film thickness in the axial direction, the narrow
web width of L = 0.012 m was used in the measurements under the
tension of T = 80 N / m. As can be seen in the figure, at the low
roller velocity of Ur = 4.0 m / s, the air film thickness decreases
continuously in the circumferential direction due to the web permeability. However, the rate of a decrease is very small because
the permeability is very low, and the air film thickness tends to be
constant in the circumferential direction with an increase of roller
velocity because the effect of web permeability becomes smaller
and smaller with roller velocity as predicted in Eqs. 21 and 22.
The air film thickness at the inlet boundary of web-roller interface
is nearly equal to the predicted results for the infinitely wide web,
and then it decreases considerably in the circumferential direction.
On the other hand, the air film thickness in the axial direction is
nearly constant except the neighborhood of web edges. The tendency becomes more pronounced as the roller velocity decreases.
Good agreement can be seen both quantitatively and qualitatively
between the measured results and the result predicted from Eq.
21.

Variation of air film thickness with roller velocity PET

Results for PET are shown in Fig. 10b. Since the roller radius
used in the measurements was about nine times the radius in the
measurements for coated paper, the air film thickness is much
larger than the thickness for the coated paper measured by the
authors. As PET is impermeable as mentioned previously, the air
film thickness is constant in the circumferential direction in the
wide range of web wrapped region. There is good agreement between the measured results and the results predicted from Eq. 21
in the case of velocity range of Ur 5.08 m / s but the error becomes larger for a roller velocity of 7.62 m / s. In the figure, the
results calculated by Ducoty and Good 13 are also indicated. In
their calculation, the squeeze film model is employed for accounting for the air leakage effects. Although the Ducoty and Good
model overestimates the experimental results, an amount of overestimation becomes smaller with an increase of web velocity.
Results for newsprint are shown in Fig. 10c. In this case, it is
difficult to increase the air film thickness due to the large permeability of web. The web starts to float at the roller velocity of
Ur = 12.7 m / s. The air film thickness linearly decreases in the circumferential direction and the web is in contact with roller near
the outlet of web wrapped region. This may be due to the apparent
increase of web tension as Ducotey and Good state in their paper
13. The calculated results predict the experimental results qualitatively but not quantitatively, especially in the cases of low velocities.
The variation of the air film thickness at the center of web x
= 0 and z = 0 in Fig. 2 with roller velocity is shown in Figs. 11

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Fig. 12 Variation of air film thickness with roller velocity

coated paper

Fig. 13 Variation of air film thickness with roller velocity

newsprint

through 13 for three types of webs with different permeabilities, in

which the measured data for three types of webs were obtained by
the authors.
Figure 11 shows the results for PET for different web width of
L = 0.012 m and 0.035 m subject to the web tension of T
= 80 N / m, in which the continuous lines show the results predicted from Eq. 21 and the dashed lines show the results for the
infinitely wide web. The error bars show the upper and lower
limits of scatter range of the measured data and the circles represent the average values of these data. The air film thickness for
narrow web of L = 0.012 m becomes considerably smaller than the
thickness for wide web of L = 0.035 m due to the side leakage of
entrained air. Reasonable agreement can be seen between the measured results and the result predicted from Eq. 21 within 5%
relative error except in a high velocity range of Ur 10 m / s. It
follows that the result for an infinitely wide web, which has been
used conventionally in the analysis of air film thickness between
the web and the roller, considerably overestimates the air film
thickness in the case of the narrow web of L = 0.012 m. In the case
of the wide web of L = 0.035 m, however, the difference between
the result for an infinitely wide web and the result by Eq. 21
becomes smaller. The result predicted from Eq. 21 underestimates slightly the experimental results for high transport velocity
of Ur 10 m / s. The tendency is more pronounced in the case of
the narrow web of L = 0.012 m. For Ur 10 m / s, the web stiffness
and fluid inertia, which is neglected in the present theory, may
affect the air film thickness. These secondary effects on the air
film thickness will be examined in subsequent papers. As a result,

it can be said that the effect of web width should be incorporated

in the theoretical model for the accurate prediction of air film
thickness, especially for narrow width webs.
Figure 12 shows the results for the coated paper with low permeability of k = 1.83 1017 m2 subject to the web tension of T
= 80 N / m, in which the continuous lines show the results considering the effect of permeability and the dashed lines the results
neglecting the effect of permeability. At the low roller velocities
of Ur = 0 1 m / s, the nondimensional web permeability defined
in Eq. 22 increases, and the web is still in contact with roller
surface due to air diffusion through the web. The air film thickness for the narrow web of L = 0.012 m becomes smaller than the
thickness for the wide web of L = 0.035 m due to side leakage of
entrained air. The tendency is essentially the same as the case of
PET impermeable web. Fairly good agreement can be seen between the measured results and the results predicted from Eq. 21
within 15% relative error except in a low velocity region of Ur
3 m / s. This is because the permeability of the coated web is
small. The results for the infinitely wide web overestimate the air
film thickness. As already shown in Fig. 6, the effects of web
width become important for 30. Thus, the finite width model
should be used for accounting for the air leakage effects on the air
film thickness.
Figure 13 shows the results for the uncoated paper newsprint
with large permeability of k = 4.93 1015 m2 for two different
web widths of L = 0.012 m and L = 0.035 m subject to a constant
web tension of T = 80 N / m. The continuous lines show the results
considering the effect of web permeability and the dashed lines

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APRIL 2006, Vol. 128 / 273

show the results neglecting the effect. The web cannot become
airborne due to large permeability for a wide range of roller velocity and the air film thickness between the web and the roller is
less than the composite rms roughness of the web and roller surfaces 3 4 m in both cases of L = 0.012 m and L = 0.035 m.
Based on the results, it appears that the web is actually in contact
with roller surface. The air film thickness predicted from Eq. 21
remains zero for the full range of velocities considered in the
experiments but the measured air film thickness slightly increases
with an increase of velocity. However, the air film thickness is still
less than the maximum surface roughness height in both predicted
results and measured results.
From the results presented in Figs. 10 to 13, there is good
agreement quantitatively and qualitatively between the results predicted from Eq. 21 and the measured results. It is recommended
that Eq. 21 be used for the first-order estimation of air film
thickness.

Conclusions
In this paper, a simple curve fit formula for predicting the entrained air film thickness between the web and the roller was
obtained, which considers the effects of side leakage and air diffusion due to web permeability. The results of air film thickness
predicted from this formula were compared with the measured
results for three types of webs with different permeabilities, including PET, coated paper, and uncoated paper newsprint. The
main conclusions are briefly summarized as follows:
1 The air film thickness predicted from Eq. 21 agree
well with the measured results qualitatively for various
combinations of web width, tension, roller radius, and
web permeability for a wide range of roller velocity.
2 The air film thicknesses predicted from Eq. 21 agree
with the measured results quantitatively for a impermeable web PET within an acceptable error less than 5%
except large velocities where Ur 10 m / s.
3 The air film thickness predicted from Eq. 21 underestimates the measured results for a low permeability web
coated paper within 15% error except in a low velocity
region of Ur 3 m / s.
4 A high permeability web newsprint is difficult to float
due to air diffusion through web surface for a full range
of velocities considered in the experiments. The air film
thickness was zero in both cases of the results predicted
from Eq. 21 and the measured results.

Nomenclature
A
a
B
E1

E2
f
gx
h
h0

h
h
k

area to flow through permeable layer m2

shape parameter used in Eq. 17
wrap angle rad or deg
Youngs modulus of web in longitudinal machine direction GPa
Youngs modulus of web in axial cross direction GPa
function of defined in Eq. 16
function of x defined in Eq. 17
air film thickness m
air film thickness at the central position of web
m
normalized air film thickness h / R2/3
air film reduction due to web permeability
m
web permeability m2

Rr max
Rrqrms
Rw max
Rwqrms
T
t
L
p
pa
p
p
Q
R

tf
U
Ur
Uw
w
x
xs
xe
x

z
z

web width m
air film pressure Pa
ambient pressure Pa
normalized air film pressure p pa / T / R
pressure difference Pa
volumetric air flow rate m3 / s
roller radius m
maximum roughness of roller surface m
rms roughness of roller surface m
maximum roughness of web surface m
rms roughness of web surface m
web tension N/m
time required for a specified air volume to
flow though a given area under a certain pressure difference s
web thickness m
transport velocity Ur + Uw m/s
roller velocity m/s
web velocity m/s
web deflection m
coordinate in the transporting direction m
inlet boundary in the web-roller interface m
outlet boundary in the web-roller interface m
normalized coordinate in the transporting direction x / R1/3
coordinate in the axial direction of roller m
normalized coordinate in the axial direction of
roller z / L
normalized web permeability
kTB / t f RU
normalized wrap angle B / 1/3
normalized shape function d / R2/3
web parameter 6U / L
normalized web width L / 2R1/3
air viscosity Pa.s

References
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12 Hashimoto, H., 1999, Air Film Thickness Estimation in Web Handling Processes, ASME J. Tribol., 121, pp. 5055.
13 Ducotey, K. S., and Good, J. K., 1998, The Effect of Web Permeability and
Side Leakage on the Air Film Height Between a Roller and Web, ASME J.
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