Rheological study of concentrated suspensions in pressure-driven shear flow using a novel in-line ultrasound Doppler method

 In this work a novel in-line non-invasive rheological measuring technique is developed and tested in pilot plant and industrial-scale applications. The method is based on a combination of the ultrasonic pulsed echo Doppler technique (UVP) and pressure difference method (PD). The rheological flow properties are derived from simultaneous recording and on-line analysis of the velocity profiles across the tube channel and related radial shear stress profiles calculated from the pressure loss along the flow channel. It is shown that the in-line UVP-PD technique allows for the non-invasive rheological flow behaviour characterization of non-transparent and highly concentrated suspensions. Received: 8 May 2000 / Accepted: 22 June 2001 Published online: 29 November 2001