Viscosity of suspensions of spherical and other isodimensional particles in liquids

"March 8, 1958.""Reprinted from American Institute of Chemical Engineers Journal, Volume 3, Page 111, March 1957.""The viscosity of a suspension is related to the properties of the suspending liquid and the suspended particles by measuring the viscosity of suspensions made up of closely sized materials such as glass spheres, plastic Zeolite spheres, blasting sand, and salt cubes in a wide range of concentrations in liquids of varying properties made up of castor oil, tetrabromoethane and carbon tetrachloride, or corn syrup and water. The measurements were made under carefully controlled conditions by means of a Brookfield viscometer, and the reproducibility of results was demonstrated by repetitive runs. Equations are derived to describe the viscosities of these various suspensions in terms of the viscosity and density of the suspending liquid and of the shape, size distribution, density, and concentration of solid particles. The range of concentration covered is from infinite dilution to near infinite viscosity. The results obtained can best be explained by postulating nonuniform distribution of particles in a suspension in a network of tetrahedral and simple cubical packings."--Page 111