Shear Flow of Guncotton Pulp

This article considers aspects of the flow, rheology, and viscometry of guncotton pulp. It is substantiated that during production guncotton pulp is subjected to shear deformation, taking into account sliding over smooth surfaces, in the input zones of the dies, in the barrel, and on the crimped finned tube of the screw extruder. At the same time, the presence of shear stress in guncotton pulp has not been established. A rotational viscometer with a torque meter, which was developed during this research, enabled the presence of shear stress in guncotton pulp to be demonstrated. The values of the flow stress depend on the solvent content in the guncotton pulp; as this is decreased, the τ0 value increases. When the flow curve for the section from τ0 to τRmax was constructed, the flow curves of the guncotton pulp were described by the Herschel-Bulkley equation. The flow curves of guncotton pulp obtained on corrugated capillaries of different sizes are non-invariant and depend on the magnitude of the deformation of the guncotton pulp in the capillaries. Guncotton pulp flows in a narrow range of pressures and deformations.