Effect of particle shape on the apparent viscosity of liquid–solid suspensions

The viscosities of liquid–solid suspensions were experimentally determined for castor oil-paraffin and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic particle systems at room temperature and for a Fe–C melt at various temperatures. The degree of sphericity of the particles was introduced as a parameter for characterizing the effect of the particle shape on the apparent viscosity of liquid–solid systems. The results indicated that with an increase in the degree of sphericity of the particles, the apparent viscosity decreased. However, the presented well-known prediction models, such as Krieger-Dougherty's model and Batchelor's model only consider the effect of the particle fraction on the apparent viscosity of liquid–solid suspensions, whereas the effect of the particle shape is neglected. Based on the experimental data, the particle shape was introduced to modify Krieger-Dougherty's and Batchelor's models. The apparent viscosity can be successfully predicted using the modified model.