Rheology of cocoa-pod husk aqueous system. Part-I: steady state flow behavior

A fundamental rheological data describing the flow behavior of an aqueous system prepared from an agricultural harvest residue, cocoa-pod husk in fixed chemical environment, has been presented. Shear stress and viscosity data were obtained and analyzed at different solid concentrations in order to investigate basic particle interactions and how far the aqueous system conforms to relevant standard rheological models. The resulting suspension is a complex non-Newtonian thixotropic viscoelastic system, highly flocculating, weakly gel-like and conforming reasonably with the Power-Law, Herschel-Bulkley, Cross, and Carreau models. The result is consistent with that of a flocculated system indicating that this agricultural waste could serve as a filler material in conventional organic-based matrix materials for affordable composite fabrication for panels.