A System to Measure Viscosities of Spray Mixtures at High Shear Rates

✍ Scribed by Reichard, Donald L.; Zhu, Heping

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 697 KB
• Volume: 47
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1526-498X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9063(199606)47:2<137::aid-ps408>3.0.co;2-m

✦ Synopsis

The viscosity of spray mixtures can greatly influence the sizes of spray droplets produced by atomizers. However, no low-cost system has been available to measure the viscosity at the high shear rates that are typical of pesticide mixtures passing through orifices of nozzles at pressures commonly used in agricultural spraying. An inexpensive system was developed to measure viscosity at shear rates up to 200000 s-' for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquids. Viscosity measurements of Newtonian liquids with viscosities ranging from 0.87 to 9.1 mPa s indicated that the measured viscosity was within 5% of the actual value at various high shear rates up to 200000 s-'. As shear rate was increased, the viscosities of mixtures of water with drift control agents 'Nalco-Trol,' 'Target' and an experimental formulation decreased remained about the same, and increased respectively.