Rheological behavior during squeeze flow of concentrated suspensions of spheres in different viscosities silicone oils

Thus, this paper assesses the rheological behaviour of concentrated suspensions of macroscopic glass spheres in Newtonian fluids with different viscosities (silicone oils: 100, 1000 e 10000 cSt) aiming to analyse liquid and solid interactions as well as the occurrence of phase separation. Suspensions with 60% and 70%vol of spheres were subjected to squeeze flow tests at different displacement rates (0.01, 0.1 and 1.0 mm/s).

The increase in liquid content changed the main phenomena governing the flow: (i) at low liquid volume, friction between particles, liquid lubrication capacity and cohesion generated by meniscus formation have a major effect; while (ii) in suspensions with liquid content enough to separate the particles, the fluid viscosity, drag force and permeability of the granular system determine the rheological behaviour of the suspension and the occurrence of phase separation.