A Vane Rheometer for Fresh Mortar: Development and Validation

Abstract

This paper presents the development of a vane rheometer to estimate mortar plastic viscosity and yield stress. The rheological parameters were developed from measurements using a procedure to convert the vane torque and rotational velocity data into shear stress versus shear rate relationships. The used procedure considered the locally sheared material as a Bingham fluid and computed the characteristic shear rate from Couette analogy. The apparatus was tested with three experimental programs in which many rheological parameters of mortar compositions were calculated. The obtained results validated the rheometer test procedure and confirmed that the test results are reproducible.

Keywords

• mortar
• rheology
• plastic viscosity
• yield stress
• vane rheometer