The apparent slipflows of incompressible and viscoplastic (Herschel–Bulkley) fluids in plane Couette, capillary, and rectangular slit dies under fully developed, isothermal, and creeping flow conditions were analyzed assuming that the apparent slip layer consists solely of the binder and its thickness is independent of the flow rate. Both the drag-induced (plane Couette) and pressure-induced (capillary and slit) flows generate the same dependencies of the wall-slip velocity on the wall shear stress. Navier’s slip coefficient, which relates the wall-slip velocity to the shear stress, is similar for all three flows and is a function of the thickness of the apparent slip layer and the shear viscosity of the binder. The assumed apparent slip mechanism provides methodologies for the determination of the slip velocity values that are consistent with the traditional Mooney method and furthermore allows the determination of the true shear rate of the suspension at the wall and the yield stress. The analysis of the slip data of various concentrated suspensions of rigid particles reveals that, as a first approximation, the apparent slip layer thickness is related to the particle diameter and the ratio of the volume loading level over the maximum packing fraction of the particles.

The shear viscosity material function of a highly filled suspension consisting of a Newtonian poly(butadiene acrylonitrile acrylic acid terpolymer) matrix, PBAN, mixed with an ammonium sulfate filler at 60% by volume was studied. Both capillary and parallel disk torsional flows were employed. The rheological characterization revealed strong slip of the suspension at the walls over a broad range of shear stresses in both types of flows. The slip velocity increased approximately linearly with the shear stress. In capillary flows, above a critical shear stress, flow took place in a pluglike manner, owing to slip at the wall. The experimental findings were further elucidated to determine the slip layer thickness and the apparent shear viscosity behavior of highly filled suspensions at high shear stress at the wall values. It was concluded that the slip effects dominate the flow of highly filled suspensions and the true flow and deformation characteristics of the highly filled suspensions may be overshadowed b...

The rheological behavior of a very concentrated suspension (76.5 vol %), which serves as a widely used solid rocket fuel simulant, was characterized employing both torsional and capillary flows. No comprehensive studies of the rheology of concentrated suspensions have been carried out previously at such a high solids content. The suspension exhibited shear thinning over the apparent shear rate range of 30–3000 s−1. Significant slip at the wall was observed in both torsional and capillary flows with the slip velocity increasing from about 0.001 mm/s at a shear stress of 4 Pa to as high as 60 mm/s at 100 kPa. A flow visualization technique was applied for the first time to determine the wall slip velocities in torsional flow directly, to also provide the true deformation rate and feedback on yielding. The contribution of the slip of the suspension at the wall to the volumetric flow rate in capillary flow was found to increase with decreasing shear stress, giving rise to plug flow at sufficiently low shear stress values. The observed plug flow is related to the shear‐thinning nature of the suspension and differs from the behavior of shear thickeningsuspensions, which may exhibit plug flow at high wall shear stress values, i.e., above a critical wall shear stress in capillary flow.