Novel Rheometer for Superposed Constant and Oscillatory Shear Rate

A newly developed resonator in combination with a UDS 200 rheometer allows performing different kinds of measurements. The characteristics of the resonator are its resonant frequency slightly above conventional rheometers, the high sensitivity allowing measurement of fluids with viscosities as low as that of water and the very small oscillation amplitudes. The nonlinear behavior of viscoelastic liquids can be analyzed using parallel superposition of shear. It is known that the parallel complex shear modulus differs from the complex modulus of a fluid at rest. First measurements have shown the ability of the instrument to quantify this effect. At the same time, normal force, shear rate viscosity and complex viscosity can be measured on a sample.