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Determining motor inertia of a stress-controlled rheometer
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Determining motor inertia of a stress-controlled rheometer

Sarah Klemuk and Ingo Titze
Journal of rheology (New York : 1978), Vol.53(4), pp.765-780
2009
DOI: 10.1122/1.3119056
PMCID: PMC2947155
PMID: 20890378
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/2947155View
Open Access

Abstract

Viscoelastic measurements made with a stress-controlled rheometer are affected by system inertia. Of all contributors to system inertia, motor inertia is the largest. Its value is usually determined empirically and precision is rarely if ever specified. Inertia uncertainty has negligible effects on rheologic measurements below the coupled motor/plate/sample resonant frequency. But above the resonant frequency, G ′ values of soft viscoelastic materials, such as dispersions, gels, biomaterials, and non-Newtonian polymers, err quadratically due to inertia uncertainty. In the present investigation, valid rheologic measurements were achieved near and above the coupled resonant frequency for a non-Newtonian reference material. At these elevated frequencies, accuracy in motor inertia is critical. Here we compare two methods for determining motor inertia accurately. For the first (commercially used) phase method, frequency responses of standard fluids were measured. Phase between G ′ and G ″ was analyzed at 5-70 Hz for motor inertia values of 50-150% of the manufacturer's nominal value. For a newly devised two-plate method (10 and 60 mm parallel plates), dynamic measurements of a non-Newtonian standard were collected. Using a linear equation of motion with inertia, viscosity, and elasticity coefficients, G ′ expressions for both plates were equated and motor inertia was determined to be accurate (by comparison to the phase method) with a precision of ±3%. The newly developed two-plate method had advantages of expressly eliminating dependence on gap, was explicitly derived from basic principles, quantified the error, and required fewer experiments than the commercially used phase method.
 Linear viscoelastic measurement Motion inertia Stress-controlled rheometer

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