Temperature Coefficients of Non-Newtonian Viscosity at Fixed Shearing Stress and at Fixed Rate of Shear

Abstract

Viscosity decreases with increasing shearing stress or rate of shear in the non-Newtonian flow of high polymeric systems. It is shown that it follows from this fact that the variation of viscosity with temperature is greater at fixed shearing stress than at fixed rate of shear. For such systems, it is shown experimentally that the variation of viscosity with temperature at fixed shearing stress is independent of shearing stress. However, the variation at fixed rate of shear is always less than that at very low shearing stress, and decreases with increasing rate of shear. This behavior is reproduced by Eyring's hyperbolic sine flow equation, which is the antecedent for most other, more adequate, non-Newtonian flow equations. However, this equation is shown to be inadequate in that it predicts incorrect values of shearing stress for the occurrence of non-Newtonian behavior.