Rheology and scaling behavior of swelling clay dispersions

Abstract

The microstructure and scaling of rheological properties of colloidal gels of bentonite investigated as a function of volume fraction and strength of interparticle interaction over a range of volume fractions, elastic modulus is well described with a scaling law functions of volume fractions, while the role of interparticle attractions can be accounted for by expressing these rheological properties as (f/f_g-1)ⁿ, where f_g captures the strength of particle interaction and n the microstructure. The scaling variable (f_p/f_pc-1), suggested in percolation theory to describe rheological behavior near percolation transition, acts to collapse G’ data suggesting that along lines of constant (f/f_g-1) these gels are rheologically identical.

Keywords: rheology, scaling behavior, clay.