Process viscometry in flows of non-Newtonian fluids using an anchor agitator

Abstract

In this work, we present a viscosity measurement technique for inelastic non-Newtonian fluids directly in flows of anchor agitators that are commonly used in highly viscous fluid mixing particularly with yield stress. A two-blade anchor impeller is chosen as a model flow system and Carbopol 940 solutions and Xanthan gum solutions with various concentrations are investigated as test materials. Following the Metzner-Otto correlation, the effective shear rate constant and the energy dissipation rate constant have been estimated experimentally by establishing (i) the relationship between the power number and the Reynolds number using a reference Newtonian fluid and (ii) the proportionality between the effective shear rate and the impeller speed with a reference non-Newtonian fluid. The effective viscosity that reproduces the same amount of the energy dissipation rate, corresponding to that of Newtonian fluid, has been obtained by measuring torques for various impeller speeds and the accuracy in the viscosity prediction as a function of the shear rate has been compared with the rheological measurement. We report that the process viscometry with the anchor impeller yields viscosity estimation within the relative error of 20% with highly shear-thinning fluids.