Name:

Program: BS ChE

Subject:

Instructors Initials: LKC

Problem 2B.11 of Transport Phenomena by Bird, Stewart, and Lightfoot describes a kind of
viscometer commonly used in polymer production and other similar industries. The set-up
consists of a flat slab/plate and an inverted cone where the apex of this cone is in contact with the
plate. We could think of this instrument imaginatively and compare it to a top. The inverted cone
is this top while the plate is the surface or ground on which the toy spins around when played.
We can then imagine that the spinning of this top is affected by the atmosphere (a viscous fluid
for the said viscometer) and that a certain minimum spinning motion is necessary to allow the
top to spin around until it stops due to forces acting against the motion.
This instrument determines the viscosity of a fluid by rotating the said inverted cone at a known
angular velocity, radius, and angle between the plate and cone. The torque required to rotate the
viscometer is then measured and the viscosity can be calculated using the provided equation
[2B.11-3].
This problem has four items that we need to contend with in order to fully understand the system.
The first one (a) asks that equation [2B.11-1] be verified which is the approximate velocity
distribution (in spherical coordinates). The term approximate is used here because the velocity
distribution is treated to be like that of flow between parallel plates which allows simplification.
Complicating the model might not provide any significant advantages over a model with
reasonable simplifications. Item (b) also asks that an equation be verified, [2B.11-2] in this case,
as a reasonable shear stress equation. Item (c) however, is the one in which we are most
interested in because we need to model the system with torque as a function of viscosity [2B.113] which is the standard formula in use. Lastly, (d) is simply a straightforward application of the
standard formula for finding the viscosity of the cone-plate viscometer.