Elastico-viscous squeeze films: Part 3. the torsional-balance rheometer

The observation made in Part 2 that squeezing flow with a superimposed rotation results in an equilibrium situation with the applied load just balancing the normal stresses generated in the test fluid is used to develop a new technique (the Torsional-Balance Rheometer) for measuring the viscometric functions of elastic liquids.The Rheometer utilizes conventional torsional flow and its novel feature is that the applied load is fixed and the associated shear rate at the rim determined, in contrast to the usual situation where the shear rate is fixed and the total normal force measured.It is argued that the Torsional Balance has significant advantages over other rheometers in the very high shear-rate range, since the normal stresses being measured themselves supply a mechanism for keeping the top plate (which is free to float on the test fluid) at a constant separation from the rotating bottom plate, hence allowing very small gaps to be considered. Consistent data are shown to be possible for shear rates in excess of 10⁵ s^?1.