About peak and loop in sludge rheograms

The thixotropic behavior of sewage sludge is analysed by varying several parameters such as the time of rest, the slope of the shear rate ramp or the data sampling. We observed that only the initial stress overshoot is time-dependent but always appears, for a given material, at the same critical angle which indicates it is linked to elastic effects: during shear, the material has a short memory. The visualisation of the velocity profile within the sheared material confirms this assumption. We also demonstrate that the hysteresis area is highly dependant on the data sampling and cannot be considered as a material characteristic. Finally, we pointed out that shear rate cycles are not the most powerful method to characterize thixotropy.