Study on the suitability of a new method for in-situ viscosity measurement in industrial practice

Abstract: In this work cold model experiments in combination with Comsol modeling have been carried out to investigate the possibilities of a new method for industrial inline measurements of slag viscosities. The method aims at measuring the mass of the drag force as a sphere is dragged upwards in a liquid. The sphere was connected to a balance that was elevated at constant velocity. The liquids used were silicon oils of two different viscosities; 0.1 Pa's and 0.5 Pa's. A computer logged the mass from which the viscosity was calculated. Comsol modeling was used to show approximately at which time the drag force is constant, and to investigate the wall effect. The importance of laminar flow is discussed. The results show that the method is more suitable for liquids of higher viscosities. The reason is that the drag force is one order of magnitude lower than the other forces in the system. Since the drag force is directly proportional to the viscosity, it becomes larger with higher viscosity. The Comsol model shows that the drag force becomes constant in a few seconds from start of the movement. Comsol gives approximately the same values for the drag force as can be calculated by hand. The viscosities calculated from the experimental data are between two and five times too large for the higher viscosity tested, and between two and ten times too large for the lower viscosity tested. There is a wall effect for the two containers used in the experiments that can be seen both experimentally and by Comsol. Further work and development of the model has to be done before this method possibly could work for industrial purposes.