Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 8-20-2018 2:30 PM Vibrating-wire Rheometry Cameron C. Hopkins The University of Western Ontario Supervisor de Bruyn, John R. The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Physics A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Cameron C. Hopkins 2018 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics Commons Recommended Citation Hopkins, Cameron C., "Vibrating-wire Rheometry" (2018). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5584. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5584 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Abstract This thesis consists of two projects on the behaviour of a novel vibrating-wire rheometer and a third project studying the gelation dynamics of aqueous solutions of Pluronic F127. In the first study, we use COMSOL to perform two-dimensional simulations of the oscillations of a wire in Newtonian and shear-thinning fluids. Our results show that the resonant behaviour of the wire agrees well with the theory of a wire vibrating in Newtonian fluids. In shear-thinning fluids, we find resonant behaviour similar to that in Newtonian fluids. In addition, we find that the shear-rate and viscosity in the fluid vary significantly in both space and time. We find that the resonant behaviour of the wire can be well described by the theory of a wire vibrating in a Newtonian fluid if the viscosity in the theory is set equal to the viscosity averaged over the cir- cumference of the wire and over one period of the wire’s oscillation at the resonant frequency.