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ADAMSON UNIVERSITY

College of Engineering
Chemical Engineering Department
M a ni l a

EXPERIMENT NO. 5
MEASUREMENT OF VISCOSITY

51080/ F/ 7:00 10:00/OZ404

Submitted by:

Agoto, Ariadna L.
(201312884)
Roderno, Karl Philip G.
(201513016)

Santiago, Dana Michiko M.


(201314338)

Submitted to:
Engr. Robert Delfin

Date of the Experiment: August 11, 2017


Date of Submission: August 18, 2017
ABSTRACT
At different temperatures, viscosity of liquids were measured using Ostwald Viscometer and
Viscotester where in in Part A water, methyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol were used. While for
Part B condensed milk and catsup were used.

INTRODUCTION
Viscosity is a measure of a fluid's resistance to flow. It describes the internal friction of a
moving fluid. A fluid with large viscosity resists motion because its molecular makeup gives it a
lot of internal friction. A fluid with low viscosity flows easily because its molecular makeup
results in very little friction when it is in motion.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Viscosity can be not only a fluids resistance to flow but also a gas resistance to flow,
change shape or movement. Informally, viscosity is the quantity that describes a fluid's resistance
to flow. Fluids resist the relative motion of immersed objects through them as well as to the
motion of layers with differing velocities within them.

The Viscous Flow

Let us consider two plates having the same area, laying parallel to each other: let the
space between them be filled with a fluid (either gas or liquid). If the upper plate is dragged by a
force F in the y direction, then it shall move with a constant vy velocity.

So the plate will move with a constant velocity, having zero acceleration: the sum of the
forces that act on the plate is zero. Thus, against the force F that is dragging the plate, a frictional
force, having the same magnitude but the opposite direction as F is acting.

Its an empirical fact, that in this case, the fluid layer near the plate is not moving as
compared to the plate; so this frictional force does not arise on the solid-fluid interface, but
between the fluid layers: the adjacent layers are moving with different velocities.
Fig. 1 for the explanation of viscous flow.

The viscosity of liquids and gases are affected by temperature but in opposite ways
meaning that upon heating, the viscosity of a liquid decreases rapidly, whereas gases flow more
sluggishly. As temperature increases, the average speed of molecules in a liquid also increases
and as a result, they spend less time with their "neighbors." Therefore, as temperature increases,
the average intermolecular forces decrease and the molecules are able to interact without being
"weighed down" by one another. The viscosity of a gas, however, increases as temperature
increases because there is an increase in frequency of intermolecular collisions at higher
temperatures. Since the molecules are flying around in the void most of the time, any increase in
the contact they have with one another will increase the intermolecular force which will
ultimately lead to a disability for the whole substance to move.

So when dealing with viscous flow every fluid layers chafe on their neighbours. For two
fluid layers, interacting with each other through a surface A, laying at an infinitesimal distance
dx to each other, and having dvy difference in their velocities in the direction of y (that is
orthogonal to the direction of x), one can make the following statement:

that is commonly referred to as Newtons law. The coefficient is called the viscosity of the
fluid.
Measurement of Viscosity

The Ostwald viscometer works on the basis of the Hagen-Poiseuille law: the V volume of
a homogeneous fluid having viscosity passing per t time through a capillary tube having l
length and r radius at p pressure can be written:

4
=
8

The flow is laminar if the direction of the flow velocity is parallel in the parallel layers.
The condition of the laminar flow is the low flow velocity and the radius of the pipe must be
under a critical value. The critical value can be calculated from the Reynolds number (Re= v
r/, where is the density, v is the velocity, r is the characteristic length in the system and is
the viscosity) which should be under 2100 in case of laminar flow. The pipe should be long
enough and the out flow should go to a wider reservoir which already contains the fluid.

The Ostwald Viscometer

The Ostwald viscometer fulfils these conditions: a U-tube with two reservoir bulbs
separated by a capillary as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 Ostwald Viscometer

The liquid is added to the viscometer, pulled into the upper reservoir by suction, and then
allowed to drain by gravity back into the lower reservoir. The time that it takes for the liquid to
pass between two etched marks, one above and one bellow the upper reservoir, is measured. If
the level of the liquid having density is initially at h1 and finally at h2 the mean hydrostatic
pressure during the outflow is:

1 + 2
=
2

Where g is the gravitational acceleration of free fall. For absolute measurement we have to know
all parameters of the viscometer (V, r, l, h1, h2) but we can calibrate the equipment using a
reference liquid having well known density 0. The relative viscosity is:


= =
0 0 0

Where is the density, t is the time of outflow of the sample, 0 is the density, t0 is the time of
the outflow of the reference liquid (water).

Data Analysis

The data gathered will be tabulated, analyzed, and calculated. The average or arithmetic mean of
the final results will be obtained in order to get the rough estimate about the most common
values in the set. The formula that will be used is written as:

1
=

=1

Where: n = the number of terms

Xi = the value of each individual item in the list of numbers being averaged

METHODOLOGY

This experiment aimed to measure the viscosity of the given liquids as stated below.
Ostwald viscometer and portable viscosity tester were used for this experiment provided by the
Engineering Laboratory located in OZ fourth floor. The Ostwald viscometer, also known as U-
tube viscometer or capillary viscometer is a device used to measure the viscosity of the liquid
with a known density.
Materials, Reagents, and Instrumentation

This experiment required distilled water, 10 mL glycerol, 10 mL ethyl alcohol, 10 mL


methyl alcohol, and a starch solution, condensed milk and catsup as the reagents. For the
materials and instrumentation, the experimenters used thermometers, Ostwald viscometer,
beaker, graduated cylinders and viscotester provided in the laboratory. (add more )

RESULTS
The results observed during the experiment for the measurement of viscosity of the given
reagents was tabulated and plotted in order to present the data in a clear and concise form.

A. Measurement of Viscosity using Ostwald Viscometer


DISTILLED WATER Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 AVERAGE
Temperature (o C) 30 30 30 30
Density (g/mL) 0.996565 0.996565 0.996565 0.996565
Viscosity (cP) 0.894 0.894 0.894 0.894
Time of Efflux (min) 0.416 0.423 0.421 0.420

COMPOUND
Ethyl Alcohol Methyl Alcohol Glycerol
Temperature (o C) 31 32
Density (g/mL) 0.810 0.7866
Viscosity (cP) 1.126 0.922
Time of Efflux (min) 0.651 0.549

B. Measurement of Viscosity using Portable Viscosity tester (Vt-03)


Condensed Milk
Temperature (o C) 28
Rotor Number 3 4 5
Viscosity (cP)

Catsup
Temperature (o C) 29.2
Rotor Number 3 4 5
Viscosity (cP)
Starch Solution
o
Temperature ( C) 28
Rotor Number 3 4 5
Viscosity (cP)

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
In this experiment for part A, we observed and measured the temperature, viscosity and
time efflux of the four liquids water, ethyl alcohol, methyl alcohol and glucose. Based from the
data gathered ,glucose is the most viscous among the liquids used while water is least viscous,
aside from knowing the viscosity we can observed this by comparing the time efflux of each
liquids.

Temperature is a factor than can affect the viscosity of a liquid, as the temperature of the
liquid increases, the viscosity of the liquid decreases. To simplify, warm liquids have less
viscosity than cold liquids. This is due to the reason that when energy is added to a liquid, the
movement of the molecules increases. The increasing speed makes the molecules to slide past
each other with greater ease. Hence, the decrease of viscosity. However in the case of gases, it is
the other way around, as the temperature of a gas increases, the viscosity of the liquid increases.
Since the gas molecules are spaced far apart, they do not have to slide over one another very
often in order to flow. Increase in temperature increases the number of collisions between the
molecules which results to an increase in friction and viscosity.

Pressure also affects the viscosity of liquids though it has very little influence because
compressing liquids at medium or low pressures is almost impossible. Another factor is
concentration, as concentration increases, viscosity increases as well. Attractive force in particles
affects viscosity. Stronger attraction means higher viscosity. Additionally, particle size greatly
affects viscosity. Large particles results to higher viscosity while smaller particles means lower
viscosity because its particles can move easily.
For part B, we identified the maximum speed that each rotor can handle for each liquid
sample and what viscosity and temperature it will give while being tested in a portable
viscotester. We have 3 liquids to test for this part and they are starch solution, condensed milk
and catsup. We started off with catsup and while doing the experiment, we found out that catsup
is the most viscous among the three samples, next is the condensed milk. For the catsup, it can
only be read by spindle 4 with the maximum speed of 10 rpm and by spindle 5 with the
maximum speed of 60 rpm while it cannot be read by spindle number 3 even if set to the lowest
speed.

There are several aspects which could account to the wrong values that were obtained
during the experiment. For this case, this is due to the error of the synchronization of the timer
and the time when the liquid hits the lower mark. Another cause of error could be the improper
washing of the viscometer after the use of a sample.

CONSLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS


It is better to first dry the viscometer to be used and removed the bubbles formed inside
the tube. And also it is better to use three (3) viscometer for measuring the viscosity of glucose
because it took an hour for the experimenter to measure the time efflux.

LITERATURE CITED
http://glossary.periodni.com/glossary.php?en=Ostwald%E2%80%99s+viscometer
https://www.princeton.edu/~gasdyn/Research/T-C_Research_Folder/Viscosity_def.html
http://www.udel.edu/pchem/C444/Lectures/Lecture3.pdf
http://wweb.uta.edu/faculty/timmons/viscosity-handout.pdf
NOMENCLATURE
Represents the value of the density (Unit: g/mL)

mL - Unit of volume in milliliters

C Unit of temperature in degrees Celsius.

cP - centipoise; unit of viscosity

APPENDICE

COMPUTATIONS :
Part A.
1. Ethyl Alcohol

Given:
ethyl alcohol = 0.810 g/mL
Time of efflux ethyl alcohol = 0.651 min
water = 0.996565 g/mL
water = 0.894 cP
Time of efflux water = 0.420 min

Required:

Viscosity of ethyl alcohol ( Ethyl Alcohol ) = ?

Solution:

ethyl alcohol ( ethyl alcohol ) (Time of efflux ethyl alcohol)


=
water ( water) (Time of efflux water )

( ethyl alcohol ) (Time of efflux ethyl alcohol)( water)


ethyl alcohol =
( water) (Time of efflux water )
(0.810 g/mL ) (0.651 min) (0.894 cP)
ethyl alcohol = = 1.126 cP
(0.996565 g/mL) (0.420 min)

2. Methyl Alcohol

Given:
methyl alcohol = 0.7866 g/mL
Time of efflux methyl alcohol = 0.549 min
water = 0.996565 g/mL
water = 0.894 cP
Time of efflux water = 0.420 min

Required:

Viscosity of methyl alcohol ( Methyl Alcohol ) = ?

Solution:

methyl alcohol ( mmethyl alcohol ) (Time of efflux ethyl alcohol)


= :
water ( water) (Time of efflux water )

( methyl alcohol ) (Time of efflux methyl alcohol)( water)


methyl alcohol =
( water) (Time of efflux water )
(0.7866 g/mL ) (0.549 min) (0.894 cP)
ethyl alcohol = = 0.922 cP
(0.996565 g/mL) (0.420 min)

3. Glycerol

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