Go With the Flow for Successful Viscous Fluid Design

“Fluid viscosity changes due to flow rate are a second consideration for many food products that are mixed or pumped. The original concept of viscosity developed by Sir Isaac Newton theorized that the force required to move a fluid changed in constant proportion to the speed at which the fluid moved. Sir Newton called that ratio of force to velocity, measured as the ratio of shear stress to shear rate, viscosity. However, many food products do not behave in a “Newtonian” manner. A very common form of this non-ideal behavior are the pseudoplastic or “shear thinning” fluids, where increasing the shear (pumping rate) actually reduces the apparent viscosity.”

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