With this research, we work towards the overall objective of being able to accurately simulate fiber orientation in complex flow geometries of composite fluids of industrial significance. The focus of this work is to understand the rheological behavior of these materials and its connection to fiber orientation as determined in simple shear flow. The work includes the development of a novel approach to characterizing the transient rheology; an experimental study of the relationship between the stress growth functions in startup of flow and the fiber orientation; a critical assessment of the limitations of current fiber suspension theory; and an approach to determining unambiguous model parameters by fitting. A key difference between the rheological studies performed in this work and others is the use of a cone-and-plate device combined with "donut" shaped samples (CP-D) to prevent boundary effects on the measurement. The conventional method for obtaining transient rheological data is to use parallel disk (PP) geometry set at a gap where the measurements are independent of disk spacing. However, this work suggests that the inhomogeneous velocity gradient imposed by the PP geometry induces excessive fiber-fiber contact contributing to exaggerated measurements of the stress growth functions. An experimental study of the transient rheological behavior of a 30 wt% short glass fiber-filled polybutylene terephthalate was performed using the CP-D. Stress growth measurements during startup of flow were performed in combination with direct measurement of the fiber orientation to determine the relationship between the transient rheology and the fiber microstructure. The well defined fiber orientation and rheological experiments allowed for a quantitative assessment of current fiber suspension theory. Comparison between the experimental fiber orientation and predictions based on Jeffery's equation and the Folgar-Tucker model show that the fiber orientation evolves much slower than predicted. In addition, the addition of a "slip" term improved the agreement between the predictions and experimental results. Predictions using the Lipscomb model coupled with the Folgar-Tucker model, with slip, were fit to the transient stresses to determine the feasibility of fitting unambiguous model parameters for a specific composite fluid. Model parameters determined by fitting at a shear rate of 6 s-1 allowed for reasonable predictions of the transient stresses in flow reversal experiments at all the shear rates tested. / Ph. D.

Transient viscosity growth measurements at the startup of shear flow were performed on long glass fiber-filled polypropylene. Samples were prepared with fibers pre-oriented either in 1-direction, 3-direction or random in 1-3 plane, where the 1-direction is the direction of shear motion, the 2-direction is perpendicular to the shear plane and the 3-direction is the neutral direction. A sliding plate rheometer incorporating a shear stress transducer was constructed in the lab. It was shown that this device works well for the tested materials including a Newtonian oil, a low density polyethylene (LDPE) and short glass fiber-filled polypropylene. The transient viscosity growth behavior for long glass fiber suspensions was subsequently investigated. The results suggested that both, fiber length and fiber concentration have pronounced effect on the steady state suspension viscosity. It was also observed that the transient behavior of the pre-oriented samples was highly dependent on the initial orientation state of the fibers. / Master of Science