Acquisition and reduction of data obtained from tank 101-SY in-situ ball rheometer

Abstract

Development of the ball rheometer to measure rheological properties and density of the waste in Hanford Tank 241-SY-101 will be completed around September 1994. This instrument is expected to provide the first-of-its-kind in-situ measurements of the fluid properties of the waste contained within this tank. A mixer pump has been installed in this tank, and this pump has been very successful at mitigating the flammable gas problem associated with Tank 101-SY. The ball rheometer will serve as a diagnostic tool for judging the effectiveness of mixing in Tank 101-SY and others and will be one of few in-situ probes available for diagnostic measurements. Based on experiments performed at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest Laboratory, it is believed that a generalized Bingham fluid model (Herschel-Bulkley fluid model) may be useful for describing at least some of the waste contained in Tank 101-SY, and data obtained in the tank will initially be reduced using this fluid model. The single largest uncertainty in the determination of the drag force on the ball is the drag force which will be experienced by the cable attached to the ball. This drag can be a substantial fraction of the total drag when the ball is deep within the tank. It is expected that the fluid properties may be history dependent, thus rheological properties of the undisturbed fluid may be different from the same properties after the fluid has been disturbed by passage of the ball. The data collection strategy allows the determination of the waste fluid rheology both in the undisturbed state and after it has been disturbed by the ball. Unlike the rheological parameters, measurement of density requires no model for its interpretation; however, the effects of yield stress may need to be accounted for. This measurement can be made with fairly good accuracy and may provide the most useful data in determination of mixer pump effectiveness.

Related Papers

• → The Rheology Handbook: For users of rotational and oscillatory rheometers(2020)528 cited
• → Investigating the time-varying effect and accurate measurement method of wet shotcrete rheology based on eBT2 rheometer(2023)5 cited
• → How to Prepare SMC and BMC-like Compounds to Perform Relevant Rheological Experiments?(2012)9 cited