Shear thinning models

The Williamson equation is useful for modeling shear-thinning fluids over a wide range of shear rates (15). It makes provision for limiting low and high shear Newtonian viscosity behavior (eq. 3), where T is the absolute value of the shear stress and is the shear stress at which the viscosity is the mean of the viscosity limits TIq and, ie, at r = -H... 

The flow of some materials may not commence until a threshold value of stress, the yield stress (ao) (see Figures 1-2 and 1-3), is exceeded. Although the concept of yield stress was questioned recently (Bames and Walters, 1985), within the time scales of most food processes the concept of yield stress is useful in food process design, sensory assessment, and modeling. Shear-thinning with yield stress behavior... 

Many mathematical expressions of varying complexity and form have been proposed in the literature to model shear-thinning characteristics some of these are straightforward attempts at cmve fitting, giving empirical relationships for the shear stress (or apparent viscosity)-shear rate curves for example, while others have some theoretical basis in statistical mechanics - as an extension of the application of the kinetic theory to the liquid state or the theory of rate processes, etc. Only a selection of the more widely used viscosity models is given here more complete descriptions of such models are available in many books [Bird et al., 1987 Carreau et al., 1997] and in a review paper [Bird, 1976],... 

Non-Newtonian properties can have several different influences on fluids. Eor this work, we limit ourselves to simulating time-independent shear-thinning effects. The most basic way of modeling shear-thinning fluids is using an Ostwald/de Wale-type power law model. Eor our early investigations, we simulated jets from an... 

A common choice of functional relationship between shear viscosity and shear rate, that u.sually gives a good prediction for the shear thinning region in pseudoplastic fluids, is the power law model proposed by de Waele (1923) and Ostwald (1925). This model is written as the following equation... 

Equation 5.2, with the modified parameter X used in place of X, may be used for laminar flow of shear-thinning fluids whose behaviour can be described by the power-taw model. 

In a series of experiments on the flow of flocculated kaolin suspensions in laboratory and industrial scale pipelines(26-27-2Sl, measurements of pressure drop were made as a function of flowrate. Results were obtained using a laboratory capillary-tube viscometer, and pipelines of 42 mm and 205 mm diameter arranged in a recirculating loop. The rheology of all of the suspensions was described by the power-law model with a power law index less than unity, that is they were all shear-thinning. The behaviour in the laminar region can be described by the equation ... 

A first model of the calender nip flow has been presented by ArdichviUi. Further on Gaskefl presented a more precise and well-known model. Both models are very simplified, which yields that the flow is Newtonian and isothermal, and they predict that the nip force is inversely proportional with the clearance. Since mbber materials show a shear thinning behavior Ardichvilli s model seems not to be very realistic. The purpose of this section is to present a calender nip flow model based on the power law. The model is stiU being considered isothermal. Such a model was first presented by McKelvey. ... 

Many materials are conveyed within a process facility by means of pumping and flow in a circular pipe. From a conceptual standpoint, such a flow offers an excellent opportunity for rheological measurement. In pipe flow, the velocity profile for a fluid that shows shear thinning behavior deviates dramatically from that found for a Newtonian fluid, which is characterized by a single shear viscosity. This is easily illustrated for a power-law fluid, which is a simple model for shear thinning [1]. The relationship between the shear stress, a, and the shear rate, y, of such a fluid is characterized by two parameters, a power-law exponent, n, and a constant, m, through... 

The typical viscous behavior for many non-Newtonian fluids (e.g., polymeric fluids, flocculated suspensions, colloids, foams, gels) is illustrated by the curves labeled structural in Figs. 3-5 and 3-6. These fluids exhibit Newtonian behavior at very low and very high shear rates, with shear thinning or pseudoplastic behavior at intermediate shear rates. In some materials this can be attributed to a reversible structure or network that forms in the rest or equilibrium state. When the material is sheared, the structure breaks down, resulting in a shear-dependent (shear thinning) behavior. Some real examples of this type of behavior are shown in Fig. 3-7. These show that structural viscosity behavior is exhibited by fluids as diverse as polymer solutions, blood, latex emulsions, and mud (sediment). Equations (i.e., models) that represent this type of behavior are described below. 

Under conditions of steady fully developed flow, molten polymers are shear thinning over many orders of magnitude of the shear rate. Like many other materials, they exhibit Newtonian behaviour at very low shear rates however, they also have Newtonian behaviour at very high shear rates as shown in Figure 1.20. The term pseudoplastic is used to describe this type of behaviour. Unfortunately, the same term is frequently used for shear thinning behaviour, that is the falling viscosity part of the full curve for a pseudoplastic material. The whole flow curve can be represented by the Cross model [Cross (1965)] ... 

The results of Equation (3.56) are plotted in Figure 3.14. It can be seen that shear thinning will become apparent experimentally at (p > 0.3 and that at values of q> > 0.5 no zero shear viscosity will be accessible. This means that solid-like behaviour should be observed with shear melting of the structure once the yield stress has been exceeded with a stress controlled instrument, or a critical strain if the instrumentation is a controlled strain rheometer. The most recent data24,25 on model systems of nearly hard spheres gives values of maximum packing close to those used in Equation (3.56). 

PTT exhibits melt rheological behavior similar to that of PET. At low shear rates the melt is nearly Newtonian. It shear-thins when the shear rate is >1000s 1 (Figure 11.10) [68], At the melt processing temperatures of PET, 290°C, and of PTT, 260°C, both polymers have similar viscosities of about 200Pas. However, PTT has a lower non-Newtonian index than PET at high shear rates. The flow behavior can be modeled by the Bueche equation, as follows ... 

Before the viscosity can be calculated from capillary data, as mentioned above, the apparent shear rate, 7 , must be corrected for the effect of the pseudoplastic nature of the polymer on the velocity profile. The calculation can be made only after a model has been adopted that relates shear stress and shear rate for this concept of a pseudoplastic shear-thinning material. The model choice is a philosophical question [11] after rheologlsts tried numerous models, there are in general two simple models that have withstood substantial testing when the predictions are compared with experimental data [1]. The first Is ... 

The power law viscosity model was developed by Ostwald [28] and de Waele [29]. The model has been used in the previous sections of this chapter and it has the form shown in Eq. 3.66. The model works well for resins and processes where the shear rate range of interest is in the shear-thinning domain and the log(ri) is linear with the log (7 ). Standard linear regression analysis is often used to relate the log... 

The focus of this evaluation is on the results that were reported using four different resins [52] PC resin, LLDPE resin, EAA copolymer, and an LDPE resin. The shear viscosities for the resins at selected processing temperatures are shown in Pig. 7.17 and were modeled using the power law model provided by Eq. 7.42. The parameters for the model are given in Table 7.3. As shown in Pig. 7.17 and the n values in Table 7.3, the PC resin shear-thinned the least while the EDPE resin shear-thinned the most. The LLDPE and EAA resins have n values between those for the PC and LDPE resins. The melt density for the LDPE and LLDPE resins at 240 °C is 735 kg/mT The melt density of the EAA resin at 220 °C was 785 kg/m and the melt density of the PC resin at 280 °C was 1073 kg/mT... 

Bingham fluids that are either shear-thinning or shear-thickening above their yield stresses have corresponding power-law expressions incorporated into their viscosity models. 

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