Use of helical ribbon mixer for measurement of rheological properties of fruit pulps

Abstract

Fruit pulps contain fine particles of the flesh of the original fruit that are suspended in the fruit juice. This suspension has a tendency to settling or separation during measurements of its rheological properties in the rotational rheometer with coaxial cylinders (especially if the greater gap is used). In this case the use of a mixer is convenient. The mixer can serve as a tool for measurement of rheological properties and at the same time it can prevent the settling and it is not sensitive to the occurrence of greater particles in the measured fluid. The helical ribbon mixer was used in this work for measurement of five samples of fruit pulp. The mixer was calibrated by the use of Newtonian fluid of known viscosity (honey). The radius of the inner cylinder of hypothetical rotational rheometer was predicted from the assumption that mixer and cylinder exhibit the same torque necessary for the rotation at the same rotational speed. The average shear rate in the mixed pulp was predicted by using the relation valid for power law fluids and rheometer with coaxial cylinders. The radius (where the average shear rate was calculated) was chosen by the requirement that the shear rate would be almost independent of changes in the flow behaviour index valid for measured pulps. Firstly the flow behaviour index was predicted as a slope of torque vs. rotational speed dependence in log-log co-ordinates. It was found that the flow behaviour index varies in the range 0.2–0.3. The radius was predicted from a graph where shear rates for 0.2 and 0.3 are the same. Then the average shear rates were calculated from rotational speeds for individual flow behaviour indexes. Rheological properties measured by using a mixer correspond to those measured with a rotational rheometer with coaxial cylinders satisfactorily only in the case that the creeping flow regime was kept in the mixed fluid. The fruit pulps are strongly non-Newtonian fluids with very low values of the flow behaviour index around 0.2.