The viscosity of diesel oil and mixtures with straight vegetable oils: Palm, cabbage palm, cotton, groundnut, copra and sunflower

The feed back experience of using straight vegetable oil (SVO) as a fuel in the existing diesel engines evidences the need for fitting several physical properties, among them the fuel viscosity. An empirical modelling is proposed in order to interpolate viscosity to any kind of diesel oil/SVO blend. This model is fitted on an experimental viscosity database on blends, varying the SVO mass proportion in the blend, the blend temperature between cloud point and 353 K, and including six vegetable oils varying the fatty acids composition. Extrusion rheology was also checked by varying the pressure drop. Measurements show that blends behave Newtonian.