A new interpretation of viscosity and yield stress in dense slurries: Coal and other irregular particles

Illinois coal was ground and wet-sieved to prepare three powder stocks whose particle-size distributions were characterized. Three suspending fluids were used (glycerin, bromonaphthalene, Aroclor), with viscosities _s that differed by a factor of 100 and with very different chemistries, but whose densities matched that of the coal. Suspensions were prepared under vacuum, with coal volume fractions that ranged up to 0.46. Viscosities were measured in a cone-and-plate over a shear rate range 10^–3–10² s^–1. Reduced viscosity _r = /_s is correlated in the high-shear limit ( ) with/ _M, where _M is the maximum packing fraction for the high-shear microstructure, to reveal the roles of size distribution and suspending fluid character. A new model that invokes the stress-dependence of _M is found to correlate _r well under non-Newtonian conditions with simultaneous prediction of yield stress at sufficiently high; a critical result is that stress and not governs the microstructure and rheology. Numerous experimental anomalies provide insight into suspension behavior.