Viscosity torque sensors

Lubricants have a nonlinear viscosity coefficient against temperature. At very low or very high temperature this nonlinearity can create significant measurement failures. A careful analysis will show this effect within the transmission chain. Sticking is the worst case. It can happen that frozen water makes a short cut in torque sensors. In most cases damping factors are based on the electrical filter circuits (Fig. 7.12.13). 

Torque may also be maintained in a controlled strain rheometer such as shown in Figure 8.2.2 by using feedback from the torque sensor to adjust the motor velocity or position. However, control is typically difficult because of the sample response. Ideally one should include the viscosity of the sample in the control algorithm. Performance can be improved significantly by avoiding the sample and closing the feedback loop around a torque sensor on the motor, such as motor current to a dc motor (Michel, 1988). However, brush fiiction in the motor limits the lowest torque levels to 10 to 10- N-m. 

Hydrogel flow curves are established by means of a rotational rheometer. During the gelation viscosity evolution of the fluid is followed in the reactor by means of a torque sensor set up on the agitator shaft (laboratory reactor). 

With several springs, which function as torque gauges, and a number of spindles, viscosities can be measured up to 10 mPa-s with the Brookfield viscometer. The shear rates depend on the model and the sensor system they are ca 0.1 100 for the disk spindles, <132 for concentric cylinders, and <1500 for the cone—plate forlow viscosity samples. Viscosities at very low (ca 10 — 1 )) shear rates can be measured with the concentric... 

The Nametre Rotary B rotational viscometer measures torque in terms of the current needed to drive the d-c motor at a given speed while a material is under test. The standard sensors are coaxial cylinders or Brookfield disk-type spindles, but a cone—plate system is also available. The viscosity range for the coaxial cylinder sensors is 5 to 5 x 1(T mPa-s, and the maximum shear rate is 200. ... 

The rheometer most often used to measure viscosity at low shear rates is the cone and plate viscometer. A schematic of a cone and plate rheometer is found in Fig. 3.24. The device is constructed with a moving cone on the top surface and a stationary plate for the lower surface. The polymer sample is positioned between the surfaces. Two types of experiments can be performed the cone can be rotated at a constant angular velocity, or it can be rotated in a sinusoidal function. The motion of the cone creates a stress on the polymer between the cone and the plate. The stress transferred to the plate provides a torque that is measured using a sensor. The torque is used to determine the stress. The constant angle of the cone to the plate provides an experimental regime such that the shear rate is a constant at all radii in the device. That is, the shear rate is independent of the radial position on the cone, and thus the shear stress is also independent of the position on the cone. 

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