COMPARISON OF IN-LINE CONSISTENCY MEASUREMENT OF TOMATO CONCENTRATES USING ULTRASONICS AND CAPILLARY METHODS

摘要

This study focuses on the development of a noninvasive, in-line rheometer using ultrasonics and its comparison with data from a traditional capillary viscometer. The ultrasonic based pointwise viscosity measurement technique combines a measurement of the velocity profile and the pressure drop to determine the shear rate and the shear stress distributions, respectively in a pipe. The experiments were carried out using tomato concentrates at 8.75%, 12.75%, and 17.10% total solids content. The flow system consisted of a 53.2 mm diameter acrylic tube, a positive displacement pump and two pressure transducers. Multiple shear viscosity-shear rate data were recorded under actual pipeline conditions from a single combined measurement of the velocity profiles using ultrasonics and the pressure gradient, using the pressure transducers. The samples showed shear thinning behavior and a yield stress. Power law and Casson models were used to fit the data and both obtained R~2 values higher than 0.99. The yield stress was also directly determined from the velocity profiles. Shear viscosity versus shear rate data of the 12.75% total solids sample were obtained by capillary rheometry at four different flow rates. These showed very good agreement with those obtained using the velocity profile technique.