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The effect of premature wall yield on creep testing of strongly flocculated suspensions

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Abstract

Measuring yielding in cohesive suspensions is often hampered by slip at measurement surfaces. This paper presents creep data for strongly flocculated suspensions obtained using vane-in-cup tools with differing cup-to-vane diameter ratios. The three suspensions were titania and alumina aggregated at their isoelectric points and polymer-flocculated alumina. The aim was to find the diameter ratio where slip or premature yielding at the cup wall had no effect on the transient behaviour. The large diameter ratio results showed readily understandable material behaviour comprising linear viscoelasticity at low stresses, strain-softening close to yielding, time-dependent yield across a range of stresses and then viscous flow. Tests in small ratio geometries however showed more complex responses. Effects attributed to the cup wall included delayed softening, slip, multiple yielding and stick–slip events, and unsteady flow. The conclusion was that cups have to be relatively large to eliminate wall artefacts. A diameter ratio of three was sufficient in practice, although the minimum ratio must be material dependent.

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Abbreviations

d :

Diameter (m)

h :

Height (m)

G :

Modulus (Pa)

r :

Radial position (m)

t :

Time (s)

γ :

Strain (–)

θ :

Angular displacement (rad)

τ :

Shear stress (Pa)

ω :

Rotational rate (rad/s)

c :

Cup

i :

Instantaneous

r :

Retarded

v :

Vane

∞ :

Infinity

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Daniel Lester for insightful discussions. Ashish Kumar was supported in this work by an Australian Postgraduate Award through the Australian Research Council. Tiara Kusuma was funded by a Melbourne International Research Scholarship through The University of Melbourne. Infrastructure support at Melbourne was provided by the Particulate Fluids Processing Centre, a Special Research Centre of the Australian Research Council. Simon Biggs acknowledges the support of the Nexia Solutions University Research Alliance for Particle Science and Technology and the University of Leeds. Simon Biggs and Amy Tindley were supported in this work as part of the TSEC programme KNOO and are grateful to the EPSRC for funding under grant EP/C549465/1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Particulate Fluids Processing Centre, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia

    Anthony D. Stickland, Ashish Kumar, Tiara E. Kusuma & Peter J. Scales

  2. Institute of Particle Science and Engineering, School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering, The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Amy Tindley & Simon Biggs

  3. MSACT Research and Consulting, 34, Maritime Court, Haven Road, Exeter, EX2 8GP, UK

    Richard Buscall

Authors
  1. Anthony D. Stickland
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  2. Ashish Kumar
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  3. Tiara E. Kusuma
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  4. Peter J. Scales
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  5. Amy Tindley
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  6. Simon Biggs
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  7. Richard Buscall
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Correspondence to Anthony D. Stickland.

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Part of the 3rd special issue devoted to novel trends in rheology published 53:12

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Stickland, A.D., Kumar, A., Kusuma, T.E. et al. The effect of premature wall yield on creep testing of strongly flocculated suspensions. Rheol Acta 54, 337–352 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00397-015-0847-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00397-015-0847-x

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