Rheology and Mechanical Analysis

Rheology is the study of the flow behavior of materials under deformation.  In practice, rheology is usually focused on the study of the fundamental relations (constitutive relations) between force and deformation in materials, primarily liquids.  It provides information on the flow properties of liquids such as polymer melts, solutions, suspensions and emulsions, and it is widely applied in diverse fields including aeronautics, hydraulics, fluid dynamics, and even solid mechanics.

Rheology provides structural and morphological information, which is relevant in real-time curing and gelation processes, for analyses of shelf stability of suspensions, and for study of dispersed particle aggregation phenomena.  For polymers, macroscopic flow is associated with chain length and shape.  Consequently, rheology is often used as an indirect measurement of molecular weight, molecular weight distribution and polymer architecture.

The industrial experience and scientific expertise of Arkema's Rheology laboratory staff are key to gaining complete understanding of products, from the developmental stage to applied industrial processing.  Our capabilities include top of the line instrumentation for the rheological characterization of fluids under specific conditions.  These include:

Strain rheometry
Stress rheometry
Capillary rheometry
Solid mechanics