Quantification of shear viscosity and wall slip velocity of highly concentrated suspensions with non-Newtonian matrices in pressure driven flows

The rheological characterization of concentrated suspensions is complicated by the heterogeneous nature of their flow. In this contribution, the shear viscosity and wall slip velocity are quantified for highly concentrated suspensions (solid volume fractions of 0.55–0.60, D 4,3 ~ 5 µm). The shear viscosity was determined using a high-pressure capillary rheometer equipped with a 3D-printed die that has a grooved surface of the internal flow channel. The wall slip velocity was then calculated from the difference between the apparent shear rates through a rough and smooth die, at identical wall shear stress. The influence of liquid phase rheology on the wall slip velocity was investigated by using different thickeners, resulting in different degrees of shear rate dependency, i.e. the flow indices varied between 0.20 and 1.00. The wall slip velocity scaled with the flow index of the liquid phase at a solid volume fraction of 0.60 and showed increasingly large deviations with decreasing solid volume fraction. It is hypothesized that these deviations are related to shear-induced migration of solids and macromolecules due to the large shear stress and shear rate gradients.