Assigment on Viscometers

October 31

2012
Reffered to B.S 188

The principle of operation of the four common types of viscometers.

Name: Jovani

Cohort: Engineering Batch 2012-2014(MEE)

Module: 10.Fluid Mechanic

Submitted to: Mr.Arvind

Content
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Introduction Redwood viscometer Glass U-tube viscometer(BS 188) Falling Sphere viscometer(BS 188) Any form of rotational viscometer References

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4) Falling sphere viscometers(BS188)

Stokes' law is the basis of the falling sphere viscometer, in which the fluid is stationary in a vertical glass tube. A sphere of known size and density is allowed to descend through the liquid. If correctly selected, it reaches terminal velocity, which can be measured by the time it takes to pass two marks on the tube.

Creeping flow past a sphere.

Electronic sensing can be used for opaque fluids. Knowing the terminal velocity, the size and density of the sphere, and the density of the liquid, Stokes' law can be used to calculate the viscosity of the fluid. A series of steel ball bearings of different diameter is normally used in the classic experiment to improve the accuracy of the calculation. The school experiment uses glycerine as the fluid, and the technique is used industrially to check the viscosity of fluids used in processes. It includes many different oils, and polymer liquids such as solutions. In 1851, George Gabriel Stokes derived an expression for the frictional force (also called drag force) exerted on spherical objects with very small Reynolds numbers (e.g., very small particles) in a continuous viscous fluid by changing the small fluid-mass limit of the generally unsolvable Navier-Stokes equations:

where:

is the frictional force, is the radius of the spherical object, is the fluid viscosity, and is the particle's velocity.

If the particles are falling in the viscous fluid by their own weight, then a terminal velocity, also known as the settling velocity, is reached when this frictional force combined with the buoyant force exactly balance the gravitational force. The resulting settling velocity (or terminal velocity) is given by:

where:

Vs is the particles' settling velocity (m/s) (vertically downwards if upwards if ), is the Stokes radius of the particle (m), g is the gravitational acceleration (m/s2), p is the density of the particles (kg/m3), f is the density of the fluid (kg/m3), and is the (dynamic) fluid viscosity (Pa s).

Note that Stokes flow is assumed, so the Reynolds number must be small. A limiting factor on the validity of this result is the roughness of the sphere being used. A modification of the straight falling sphere viscometer is a rolling ball viscometer which times a ball rolling down a slope whilst immersed in the test fluid. This can be further improved by using a patented V plate which increases the number of rotations to distance traveled, allowing smaller more portable devices. This type of device is also suitable for ship board use. Currently, new equipment is developed for viscosity measurements. This equipment is survismeter and not only measures viscosity only but along with viscosity, it also measures surface tension, interfacial tension, wetting coefficient with high accuracy and precision. The survismeter also measures a new parameter which is noted as friccohesity. The friccohesity establishes an interface between the cohesive forces and the frictional forces within the similar or dissimilar molecules, dispersed in desired medium.

System Configuration and Calibrations

Fig. 1 Configuration of the falling ball viscometer 3

A falling ball viscometer was designed at ACBM at Northwestern University using a scale with accuracy of 0.001g, an elastic tensile spring, and steel balls of various diameters (Fig. 1). When a steel ball is suspended by the spring and is allowed to move in the fluid, then the forces acting on the ball can be resolved into four components. As shown in Fig. 2, these components are gravity (W), tensile force (T), buoyancy (B), and drag force (D). During the measurement, the spring is hooked to a sensor that is located at the bottom of the scale. By suspending the steel ball with the spring, the tensile force in the spring during the downwards movement of the ball can be continuously recorded by reading the numbers shown on the scale.

Fig. 2 Free body diagram of the ball

Once the tensile force is known, the displacement of the ball can be computed and this allows for the calculation of the velocity and acceleration of the ball. Hence, the only force left to be determined is the drag force, and it can be solved using the equation of motion shown in Fig. 2. In steady state condition and when Reynolds number (Rn) is less than 0.5, the drag force can be linearly related to the velocity by applying Stokes Law for a spherical particle as shown in equation 1: (2.1) where, is the viscosity of the measured liquid; r is the radius of the ball; v is the velocity of the ball; and is the density of the measured liquid. From the equation, it can be noted that the drag force is linearly related to the velocity of the ball and the size of the moving ball. Equation 1 is valid for a spherical particle moving with a constant velocity in a Newtonian fluid. However, with the configuration that introduced, the velocity of a moving ball changes with time. This is attributed to the changing of the tensile force as the spring elongates according to the ball movement. Thus, to make sure the used theory is still valid for the used configuration, a calibration for the designed viscometer is necessary.