Assessing vibrating viscometers in slurries

A number of vibrating transducers for viscosity measurement described in the literature have been evaluated, with a view to developing an instrument for measuring gold-mine slurries. Appropriate electronic measuring methods are discussed, and related theory using a simple mathematical model is derived, and verified experimentally. A low frequency vibrating transducer is described which is capable of measuring apparent viscosities of slurries. Measurements made on Newtonian liquids at four different frequencies using the same transducer agree to ± 2%, and correlate closely with measurements made using a Redwood orifice viscometer. In order to determine the accuracy of the transducer for slurries, comparative measurements at four frequencies are used to obviate the need for a reference instrument. For a dilute (Newtonian) slurry, these measurements agree to ± 10%, but similar measurements on more concentrated (non-Newtonian) slurries show marked divergence of the curves at high frequencies. It is suspected that this behaviour is a property of the slurries, related in some way to their observed non-Newtonian behaviour. These results are of a qualitative nature, but point to the possible usefulness of the instrument for slurry measurement.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Electrical Engineering

Year dc:date.issued

1977

Author dc:creator

• Rachman, Yichal Aryeh

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Besseling, Johann L N

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18016

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/18016