Rheological analysis of rice husk-starch suspended in water for sustainable agriculture application

Abstract

Agriculture usage is one of the major consumers of freshwater resources, however the increasing over dependency on water resources needs effective water management techniques. Water scarcity is one of the main problems in agriculture sector of India where farmers need solution for effective water management with minimum initial cost and which can be implemented with traditional methods. In this study, rheological analysis of rice husk and starch suspended in water are experimentally evaluated. Rice husk was powdered for maximum particle size of 180 µm. Study has measured the viscosity for different shear rate in the range of 0.09–1500 s−1. To understand the effect of temperature study was conducted at 30 °C and 80 °C. The study is performed using the rheometer (RheolabQC), which gives the relationship between the different fluid properties at different temperatures and shear rate. Experimental study was conducted on samples containing various proportions of rice husk and corn starch in water. All the samples at 30 °C shows shear thinning behavior except starch sample, whereas at 80 °C starch also shown shear thinning behavior. Viscosity of some samples increases with increase in temperature. At 30 °C sample containing 7gm rice husk powder and 3 gm starch, shows reduction in viscosity with increase in shear rate. The results are useful to control flow rate of water along with nutrition enrichment of the soil.