Torque on a sphere inside a rotating cylinder.

Abstract

A circular cylinder of finite dimensions is made to rotate around a sphere fixed in the center of the cylinder. The couple on the sphere is measured over a wide range of rotational speeds for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. For the Newtonian liquids a comparison of the experimental results is made with Collins' (1955) expansion of the couple as a series in even powers of the angular Reynolds number. For non-Newtonian liquids the apparatus proves to be extremely useful for an accurate determination of the zero shear rate viscosity using only a small amount of fluid.