Shear thinning and thickening of cemented paste backfill

Cemented paste backfill (CPB) is considered to be a concentrated suspension in which tailings are bonded together by the hydraulic binder and water, and it has a high solid volume concentration (≥50 vol.%). Although the shear thinning and thickening of CPB has been extensively reported in literature, the shear history effects have been ignored in previous studies. In this paper, by using rheometer and Focused Beam Reflectance Measurement, the relationship between the rheological properties and microstructure of the paste under different shear histories was studied. The results have shown that at a low shear rate, CPB revealed shear thinning, low yield stress and low index parameters; while exhibited shear thickening, high yield stress and high consistency index when at high shear rates of shear history. This agreed with the general trends shown in the FBRM analysis. It was proposed that the action of shear is beneficial to particle dispersion, whereas a high shear rate history tends to promote the aggregation of particles. It was revealed that both shear thinning and thickening of paste are related to the situation of particles (flocculation, dispersion and aggregation), and shear history effects play an important role in rheological properties of CPB