Measurements of the rheological properties of standard reference material 2490 using an in-line micro-Fourier rheometer

The control of the rheological properties of a fluid during processing is important and can determine the efficiency of the production in addition to the performance of the final product. The vast majority of process fluids are viscoelastic, hence an instrument that measures both the viscous and elastic properties of the material during processing would be of great practical use. However, most in-line instruments commercially available to date are only capable of measuring viscosity at a single shear rate. An in-line rheometer that measures both the viscous and elastic properties of fluids over a wide range of shear rates simultaneously has been described in a previous publication (Glasscock et at., 2003) in which the results of measurements on flowing sunflower oil were presented. Before this instrument can be used in an industrial situation, it must be demonstrated that the generated results are the same as, or bear some fixed relationship to, the results obtained by conventional off-line rheometers. To this end, the present investigation describes the measurements of a standard reference fluid, polyisobutylene dissolved in 2,6,10,14-tetramethylpentadecane, labelled SRM2490 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the USA. The results obtained using the in-line rheometer show remarkably good correlation for viscosity, using a modified Cox­Merz rule, with the results supplied with the reference material from NIST.