The Stress-State in a Torsion Shear Cell Filled With a Newtonian Fluid

Abstract

The flow in a torsional shear cell is investigated with the purpose of finding a measure for the wall effect due to strongly nonuniform flow in the vicinity of the edge of the top platen. Various laminar flow problems are analysed that are relevant to this set-up. These include pure shearing flow of a single fluid in a both an infinite and finite cell, as well as pure shear of a two-fluid system in a finite cell. For pure shearing flow it is found that the extent of the wall effect is of the order of magnitude of the depth of the fluid layer. For piston flow the wall effect is entirely determined by boundary conditions at the bottom of the cell.