Experimental and Numerical Study on the Drying Process of Natural Rubber Latex Films

The formation of dry films from natural rubber latex was studied through the drying kinetics and compared with film preparations from two synthetic lattices. The experimental results clearly showed that all films displayed very similar behavior, although their chemical composition and particle size distribution were completely different. During the whole process, the evaporation flux was shown to be directly related to the remaining water volume fraction within the film and the reduction in the film transfer area. A numerical model was developed to describe the film formation process and the simulated results were in good agreement with the experimental results.