Elementary Rheology

Rheology--the study of the deformation and flow of matter--deals primarily with the stresses generated during the flow of complex materials including polymers, colloids, foams, and gels. A rapidly growing and industrially important field, it plays a significant role in polymer processing, food processing, coating and printing, and many other manufacturing processes. Designed as a main text for advanced undergraduate- or graduate-level courses in rheology or polymer rheology, Understanding Rheology is also an ideal self-teaching guide for practicing engineers and scientists who find rheological principles applicable to their work. Covering the most important aspects of elementary modern rheology, this detailed and accessible text opens with an introduction to the field and then provides extensive background chapters on vector and tensor operations and Newtonian fluid mechanics. It continues with coverage of such topics as: * Standard Flows for Rheology * Material Functions * Experimental Observations * Generalized Newtonian Fluids * Generalized Linear-Viscoelastic Fluids * Nonlinear Constitutive Equations * Rheometry, including rheo-optics Understanding Rheology incorporates helpful pedagogical aids including numerous problems for each chapter, many worked examples, and an extensive glossary. It also contains useful appendices on nomenclature, mathematical tools, predictions of constitutive equations, and birefringence.

This book gives a brief but thorough introduction to the fascinating subject of non-Newtonian fluids, their behavior and mechanical properties. After a brief introduction of what characterizes non-Newtonian fluids in Chapter 1 some phenomena characteristic of non-Newtonian fluids are presented in Chapter 2. The basic equations in fluid mechanics are discussed in Chapter 3. Deformation kinematics, the kinematics of shear flows, viscometric flows, and extensional flows are the topics in Chapter 4. Material functions characterizing the behavior of fluids in special flows are defined in Chapter 5. Generalized Newtonian fluids are the most common types of non-Newtonian fluids and are the subject in Chapter 6. Some linearly viscoelastic fluid models are presented in Chapter 7. In Chapter 8 the concept of tensors is utilized and advanced fluid models are introduced. The book is concluded with a variety of 26 problems. Solutions to the problems are ready for instructors

This book focuses on the current research in the area of rheology. Rheological characterizations are performed on materials in order to understand the basic nature of a system, quality control of raw materials and final products. The rheological characterizations are important to study the effect of different parameters such as formulation, shelf life and temperature on the quality of final products. The book covers a broad range of rheology related topics such as microrheology, capillary rheolgical measurements, characterization of dense suspensions and numerical analysis of viscoelastic fluids.