Shear rate

Shear rate is the rate at which a progressive shearing deformation is applied to some material.

Simple shear
The shear rate for a fluid flowing between two parallel plates, one moving at a constant speed and the other
one stationary (Couette flow), is defined by

where:

.
◾ γ is the shear rate, measured in reciprocal seconds;
◾ v is the velocity of the moving plate, measured in meters per second;
◾ h is the distance between the two parallel plates, measured in meters.
Or:

For the simple shear case, it is just a gradient of velocity in a flowing material. The SI unit of measurement for
shear rate is s−1, expressed as "reciprocal seconds" or "inverse seconds".[1]

The shear rate at the inner wall of a Newtonian fluid flowing within a pipe[2] is

where:

.
◾ γ is the shear rate, measured in reciprocal seconds;
◾ v is the linear fluid velocity;
◾ d is the inside diameter of the pipe.
The linear fluid velocity v is related to the volumetric flow rate Q by

where A is the cross-sectional area of the pipe, which for an inside pipe radius of r is given by
thus producing

Substituting the above into the earlier equation for the shear rate of a Newtonian fluid flowing within a pipe,
and noting (in the denominator) that d = 2r:

which simplifies to the following equivalent form for wall shear rate in terms of volumetric flow rate Q and
inner pipe radius r:

.
For a Newtonian fluid wall, shear stress (τw) can be related to shear rate by τw = γ xμ, where μ is the dynamic
viscosity of the fluid. For non-Newtonian fluids, there are different constitutive laws depending on the fluid,
which relates the stress tensor to the shear rate tensor.

References
1. "Brookfield Engineering - Glossary section on Viscosity Terms" (https://web.archive.org/web/20070609171
914/http://www.brookfieldengineering.com/education/viscosity_glossary.asp). Archived from the original (ht
tp://www.brookfieldengineering.com/education/viscosity_glossary.asp) on 2007-06-09. Retrieved
2007-06-10.
2. Darby, Ron (2001). Chemical Engineering Fluid Mechanics (https://books.google.com/books?id=hoXH5q
WVnpMC&pg=PA64) (2nd ed.). CRC Press. p. 64.

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This page was last edited on 29 September 2019, at 06:14 (UTC).

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