Suspension concentrated

The remainder of this contribution is organized as follows. In section C2.6.2, some well studied colloidal model systems are introduced. Methods for characterizing colloidal suspensions are presented in section C2.6.3. An essential starting point for understanding the behaviour of colloids is a description of the interactions between particles. Various factors contributing to these are discussed in section C2.6.4. Following on from this, theories of colloid stability and of the kinetics of aggregation are presented in section C2.6.5. Finally, section C2.6.6 is devoted to the phase behaviour of concentrated suspensions. 

A huge variety of model colloids have been studied. In this section we will highlight a few of these, of particular interest to the discussion of concentrated suspensions in section C2.6.6. 

Colloidal dispersions often display non-Newtonian behaviour, where the proportionality in equation (02.6.2) does not hold. This is particularly important for concentrated dispersions, which tend to be used in practice. Equation (02.6.2) can be used to define an apparent viscosity, happ, at a given shear rate. If q pp decreases witli increasing shear rate, tire dispersion is called shear tliinning (pseudoplastic) if it increases, tliis is known as shear tliickening (dilatant). The latter behaviour is typical of concentrated suspensions. If a finite shear stress has to be applied before tire suspension begins to flow, tliis is known as tire yield stress. The apparent viscosity may also change as a function of time, upon application of a fixed shear rate, related to tire fonnation or breakup of particle networks. Thixotropic dispersions show a decrease in q, pp with time, whereas an increase witli time is called rheopexy. 

Pusey P N and van Megen W 1986 Phase behaviour of concentrated suspensions of nearly hard colloidal spheres Nature 320 340-2... 

The apparent viscosity, defined as du/dj) drops with increased rate of strain. Dilatant fluids foUow a constitutive relation similar to that for pseudoplastics except that the viscosities increase with increased rate of strain, ie, n > 1 in equation 22. Dilatancy is observed in highly concentrated suspensions of very small particles such as titanium oxide in a sucrose solution. Bingham fluids display a linear stress—strain curve similar to Newtonian fluids, but have a nonzero intercept termed the yield stress (eq. 23) ... 

Detailed treatments of the rheology of various dispersed systems are available (71—73), as are reviews of the viscous and elastic behavior of dispersions (74,75), of the flow properties of concentrated suspensions (75—82), and of viscoelastic properties (83—85). References are also available that deal with blood red ceU suspensions (69,70,86). 

Highly concentrated suspensions of fine sohd particles frequently... 

Settling does not give a complete separation one product is a con-centratea suspension and the other is a hquid which may contain fine particles of suspended sohds. However, settling is often the best way to process veiy large volumes of a dilute suspension and remove most of the hquid. The concentrated suspension can then be filtered with smaller equipment than would be needed to filter the original dilute suspension, and the cloudy liquid can be clarified if necessaiy. Settlers can also be used for classifying particles by size or density, which is usually not possible with filtration. 

Several devices are available commercially to measure mobihty. One of these (Zeta-Meter Inc., New York) allows direct microscopic measurement of individual particles. Another allows measurement in more concentrated suspensions (Numinco Instrument Corp., Monroeville, Pa.). The state of the charge can also be measured by a streaming-current detecdor (Waters Associates, Inc., Framingham, Mass.). For macromolecules, more elaborate devices such as the Tisehus moving-boundaiy apparatus are used. 

Settling tanks are used to separate low solids concentration suspensions (solid-liquid separation devices usually comprising a vessel containing a single baffle which directs the suspension to the base from where it rises to the outlet, as illustrated in Figure 4.1. So long as the... 

Remove the cap cover, place the standard in position, and replace the cap. The standard is generally the matched test-tube containing the most concentrated suspension of the substance being determined the concentration must, of course, be known. 

For the transport of a dilute suspension of solids, uR will approximate to the free-falling velocity uq of the particles in the liquid. For concentrated suspensions, a correction must be applied to take account of the effect of neighbouring particles. This subject is considered in detail in Volume 2 (Chapter 5) from which it will be seen that the simplest form of... 

A highly concentrated suspension of flocculated kaolin in water behaves as a pseudo-homogeneous fluid with shear-thinning characteristics which can be represented approximately by the Ostwald-de Waele power law, with an index of 0.15. It is found that, if air is injected into the suspension when in laminar flow, the pressure gradient may be reduced even though the flowrate of suspension is kept constant, Explain how this is possible in slug flow and estimate the possible reduction in pressure gradient for equal volumetric flowrates of suspension and air. 

Prager [302] examined diffusion in concentrated suspensions using the variational approach. (A discussion of the basic principles in variational theory is given in Ref. 6.) Prager s result is applicable to a very general class of isotropic porous media. Prager s solution for a limiting case of a dilute suspension of particles was... 

Prager, S, Diffusion and Viscous Flow in Concentrated Suspensions, Physica 29, 129, 1963. 

The polymer chain concentration and the polymer chain radius were employed to assess the rotational mobility of a molecule within a swollen gel [14]. To this purpose the gel is considered a thick, viscous polymer suspension. Its viscosity can be evaluated with the following equation, proposed by Nicodemo and Nicolais for concentrated suspensions of polymeric fibers [147] ... 

S. A. Altobelli, E. Fukushima, L. A. Mondy, T. S. Stephens 1991, (Experimental observations of particle migration in concentrated suspensions — Couette flow),/. Rheol. 35, 773. 

S. BobrofF, R. J. Phillips 1998, (Nudear magnetic resonance imaging investigation of sedimentation of concentrated suspensions in non-Newtonian fluids), J. Rheol. 42, 1419. 

J Mewis. Flow behaviour of concentrated suspensions predictions and measurements. Int J Miner Proc 44-45 17-27, 1996. 

A planar BLM cannot be investigated by means of the molecular spectroscopical methods because of the small amount of substance in an individual BLM. This disadvantage is removed for liposomes as they can form quite concentrated suspensions. For example, in the application of electron spin resonance (ESR) a spin-labelled phospholipid is incorporated into the liposome membrane this substance can be a phospholipid with, for example, a 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidyl-A-oxide (TEMPO) group ... 

Xanthans from several different sources were used in this study Xanthan samples A, B and C were kindly provided as freeze dried powder of ultrasonic degraded xanthan by Dr. B. Tinland, CERMAV, Grenoble, France. The molecular weights of these samples were determined experimentally in dilute solution by Dr. B. Tinland. Xanthan D was kindly provided as pasteurized, ultrafiltrated fermentation broth by Dr. G. Chauveteau, Institut Francais du Petrole, France. Xanthan E was kindly provided as a freeze dried sample from Dr. I. W. Sutherland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Xanthan F was obtained as a commercial, powdered material (Kelzan, Kelco Inc., a Division of Merck, San Diego CA.). Xanthan G was obtained as a commercial concentrated suspension (Flocon 4800, Pfizer, New York, NY)... 

The process of thickening involves the concentration of a slurry, suspension, or sludge, usually by gravity settling. Because concentrated suspensions and/ or fine particle dispersions are often involved, the result is usually not a complete separation of the solids from the liquid but is instead a separation into a more concentrated (underflow) stream and a diluted (overflow) stream. Thickeners and clarifiers are essentially identical. The only difference is that the clarifier is designed to produce a clean liquid overflow with a specified purity, whereas the thickener is designed to produce a concentrated underflow product with a specified concentration (Christian, 1994 Tiller and Tarng, 1995 McCabe et al., 1993). 

FIGURE 13.6 Whole bacterial-cell EPR. A frozen concentrated suspension of cells from the sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris gives an EPR spectrum with only a [2Fe-2S]1+ signal and a flavin radical signal, both from adenosine phosphosulfate reductase. 

Viscosities of concentrated suspensions of carbon black in a white mineral oil (Fisher "paraffin" oil of 125/135 Saybolt viscosity) were measured with a Brookfield viscometer as a function of OLOA-1200 content. Figure 13 shows the viscosities of dispersions with 30 w%, 35 w% and 70 w% carbon black. In all cases the viscosity fell rapidly as the 0L0A-1200 content increased from 0 to 1%, then fell more gradually and levelled off as the 0L0A-1200 content approached 2%. In many respects the reduction in viscosity with increasing OLOA-1200 content parallels the conductivity measurements both phenomena are sensing the buildup of the steric barrier, and this steric barrier weakens, softens, and lubricates the interparticle contacts. As evidenced in foregoing sections, the particles are still flocculated but can be easily stirred and separated mechanically. The onset of electrostatic repulsion at OLOA-1200 contents in excess of 2.5% did not affect viscosities. 

Any fundamental study of the rheology of concentrated suspensions necessitates the use of simple systems of well-defined geometry and where the surface characteristics of the particles are well established. For that purpose well-characterized polymer particles of narrow size distribution are used in aqueous or non-aqueous systems. For interpretation of the rheological results, the inter-particle pair-potential must be well-defined and theories must be available for its calculation. The simplest system to consider is that where the pair potential may be represented by a hard sphere model. This, for example, is the case for polystyrene latex dispersions in organic solvents such as benzyl alcohol or cresol, whereby electrostatic interactions are well screened (1). Concentrated dispersions in non-polar media in which the particles are stabilized by a "built-in" stabilizer layer, may also be used, since the pair-potential can be represented by a hard-sphere interaction, where the hard sphere radius is given by the particles radius plus the adsorbed layer thickness. Systems of this type have been recently studied by Croucher and coworkers. (10,11) and Strivens (12). 

Experiments to determine specific resistance, based on Equation 7, have usually been carried out by some form of vacuum filtration. These methods are time-consuming and subject to error. More rapid techniques such as the measurement of capillary suction time (CST) can be used (8), although these do not give absolute values of specific resistance. Nevertheless, the CST method is very useful for rapidly obtaining comparative data on the flocculation of fairly concentrated suspensions by polymers (9). In the present work, specific resistance has been determined by an automated technique, which will be described below. 

The method is better suited to dilute, rather than concentrated suspensions, since the data can be obtained in a short time (a few minutes at most) and only thin filter cakes are formed. With higher concentrations, much longer filtration times are needed and the thicker filter cakes are more likely to show compressibility effects and non-linear behaviour. 

The method described here provides a convenient means of determining the specific filtration resistance of fairly dilute suspensions. Results for clay suspensions flocculated by cationic polymers show that the specific resistance gives a sensitive indication of flocculation and is a useful guide in the selection of optimum flocculant concentrations. In a series of trials not reported here, it has been shown that the specific resistance results are very well matched by re-filtration rate data, as expected. The results also agree well with other, unrelated techniques. For more concentrated suspensions, some discrepancies have been found between permeability methods and other measures of flocculation (4). 

A binary suspension consists of equal masses of spherical particles of the same shape and density whose free falling velocities in the liquid are 1 mm/s and 2 mm/s, respectively. The system is initially well mixed and the total volumetric concentration of solids is 0.2. As sedimentation proceeds, a sharp interface forms between the clear liquid and suspension consisting only of small particles, and a second interface separates the suspension of fines from the mixed suspension. Using a suitable model for the behaviour of the system, estimate the falling rates of the two interfaces. It may be assumed that the sedimentation velocity uc in a concentrated suspension of voidage e is related to the free falling velocity u0 of the particles by ... 

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