The shear viscosity of carbon fibre suspension and its application for fibre length measurement

Jiang, Guozhan; Turner, Thomas A.; Pickering, Stephen J.

Abstract

The viscosity of short carbon fibre suspensions in glycerol aqueous solution was measured using a bespoke vane-in-cup viscometer, where the carbon fibre has an aspect ratio from 450 to 2209. In the semi-concentrated regime, nL3 ranging from 20 to 4400, the suspensions demonstrated strong shear-thinning characteristics particularly at higher concentrations. The shear-thinning characteristic is strongly related to the crowding factor proposed by Kerekes, indicating that non-hydrodynamic interactions occur in the suspensions. The influence of fibre bending on viscosity emerges when the bending ratio is lower than 0.0028. An empirical model based on transient network formation and rupture was proposed and used to correlate the relative viscosity with fibre concentration nL3 and shear rate. Based on the model, a viscosity method is established to analyse the fibre length by measuring the viscosity of the fibre suspension using a bespoke vane-in-cup viscometer.

Citation

Jiang, G., Turner, T. A., & Pickering, S. J. (2016). The shear viscosity of carbon fibre suspension and its application for fibre length measurement. Rheologica Acta, 55(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00397-015-0890-7

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 18, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Nov 23, 2015
• Publication Date: Jan 4, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 8, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 8, 2017
• Journal: Rheologica Acta
• Print ISSN: 0035-4511
• Electronic ISSN: 1435-1528
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 55
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-10
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00397-015-0890-7
• Keywords: Carbon fibre, suspension, viscosity, vane-in-cup, shear-thinning
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/773841
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00397-015-0890-7
• Additional Information: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00397-015-0890-7