Techniques for determining rheological properties of a fluid include actuating a resonator disposed in a volume that contains a fluid sample to operate the resonator in the fluid sample at a predetermined actuation scheme; measuring at least one characteristic of the resonator based on the operation of the resonator in the fluid sample; comparing the at least one measured characteristic to a rheological model that associates characteristics of the fluid sample to one or more rheological properties; and based on the comparison, determining one or more rheological properties of the fluid sample.

A spray product is provided. The spray product includes a composition contained within a reservoir. The composition has a yield stress greater than zero and less than 1,000 mPa as determined by the RHEOLOGY TEST METHOD. The spray product includes a valve in composition communication with the reservoir; an actuator in mechanical communication with the valve; a nozzle having an outlet orifice; a swirl chamber in composition communication with the outlet orifice; and a plurality of swirl chamber swirl chamber inlet channels in composition communication with the swirl chamber. The outlet orifice is defined by an outlet orifice diameter and an outlet orifice axial length. A ratio of the outlet orifice diameter to the axial length is from about 1.3 to about 3.5.

The present disclosure is directed to rheometric fixtures for making rheological measurements of yield stress fluids. In some embodiments, the fixture can be an improvement of a typical vane by having the ability to create a more homogeneous shear profile in a test material, e.g., a yield stress fluid. These vane fixtures having fractal-like cross-sectional structures enable robust rheological measurements of the properties of yield stress fluids due to several outer contact edges that lead to increased kinematic homogeneity at the point of yielding and beyond. The branching structure of the fractal-like fixtures can alter the shape of a wetted perimeter of the fixture while minimizing an area thereof to allow the fixture to be inserted into fluids with less disturbance. In some embodiments, a cup with a ribbed inner surface can be used to hold the sample fluid and disassembles for ease of cleaning following completion of the measurement.

A model of the viscoplastic boundary layer of a yield stress fluid is described and, based on which, there is provided a method of estimating the yield stress of a flowing yield stress fluid using one or more vibratory transducers having a vibratory surface in contact with the yield stress fluid, the method comprising: vibrating a vibratory surface of a vibratory transducer to transmit a wave from a vibrating surface into a viscoplastic boundary layer of the flowing yield stress fluid, the wave propagating a distance into the viscoplastic boundary layer; making, using the vibrations of the vibratory transducer, one or more measurements of the degree of damping of vibration; and estimating the yield stress of the flowing yield stress fluid based on the one or more measurements of the degree of damping of vibration. There are disclosed single-frequency, dual-frequency and triple-frequency modes of operation.

A compression test rig apparatus for determining a mechanical characterization of a gel-based LCM test sample comprising an LCM test cell configured to contain the gel-based LCM test sample, the LCM test cell comprising a cylinder wall defining a cell space volume configured to hold the gel-based LCM test sample, and a floor defining an extrusion hole configured to extrude the gel-based LCM test sample to create an extruded gel; an extruded gel collector configured to receive the extruded gel from the extrusion hole as an extruded gel volume; a perforated disc comprising perforations, wherein the perforated disc is configured to allow the gel-based LCM test sample to pass through the perforations; and a flat foot disc piston in flush contact with the cylinder wall, the flat foot disc piston configured to compress the gel-based LCM test sample at a displacement speed to produce compression data.

A method for measuring a rheological property of a drilling fluid by using a curved pipe on site includes: step 1: deriving relationship constants between friction coefficients of a drilling fluid through offline checking; step 2: calculating R.sub.ei according to f.sub.ci; step 3: calculating an actual shear stress τw.sub.i and a shear rate γ.sub.i of the drilling fluid in the on-site curved pipe according to the relationship constants and R.sub.ei; step 4: establishing a plurality of on-site models according to τw.sub.i and γ.sub.i; step 5: determining an optimal on-site model according to correlations between τw.sub.i and predicted shear stresses of the plurality of on-site models; and step 6: performing on-site measurement on the rheological property of the drilling fluid according to the optimal on-site model. The method avoids inaccurate rheological measurement due to different types of drilling fluids and improves the measurement accuracy for different types of drilling fluids.

The invention relates to a method for determining the intrinsic viscosity [η] of an aqueous polymer solution at a temperature T, wherein the aqueous polymer solution comprises at least one acrylamide-based polymer in an aqueous solvent, the aqueous solvent having a salinity of from 6 to 250 g/L, the method comprising the steps of: —providing a single universal relation R.sub.1 between (i), the product of polymer concentration and intrinsic viscosity C.Math.[η], and (ii) specific viscosity at zero shear rate η.sub.sp; —performing a measurement of the dynamic viscosity of the aqueous polymer solution at one polymer concentration C.sub.1, at temperature T and at various shear rates; —determining from said measurement the zero-shear viscosity η.sub.0 of the aqueous polymer solution at polymer concentration C.sub.1 and at temperature T; —calculating the specific viscosity at zero shear rate of the aqueous polymer solution at polymer concentration C and at temperature T as η.sub.sp=(η.sub.0−η.sub.s)/η.sub.s, where η.sub.s is the zero-shear viscosity of the aqueous solvent; —estimating the intrinsic viscosity [η] of the aqueous polymer solution at temperature T by applying the universal relation R.sub.1 to the calculated specific viscosity at zero shear rate η.sub.sp and polymer concentration C.sub.1.

A method for detecting components of dielectric materials is disclosed. The method includes use of a sensor to obtain at least one of a strain-dielectric coefficient data series at multiple frequencies or a stress-dielectric coefficient data series at multiple frequencies and using a processor to analyze resulting data, when a strain field or a stress field is known. The method also includes use of a sensor to obtain rheo-dielectric coefficient data at single frequency or data series at multiple frequencies and using a processor to analyze resulting data, when shear rate is known. The resulting data is used to perform material process or operation monitoring and control, quality examination, and characterization. Systems for detecting components of dielectric materials and for dielectrostriction measurement are also disclosed.

Techniques for determining rheological properties of a fluid include actuating a resonator disposed in a volume that contains a fluid sample to operate the resonator in the fluid sample at a predetermined actuation scheme; measuring at least one characteristic of the resonator based on the operation of the resonator in the fluid sample; comparing the at least one measured characteristic to a rheological model that associates characteristics of the fluid sample to one or more rheological properties; and based on the comparison, determining one or more rheological properties of the fluid sample.

A model of the viscoplastic boundary layer of a yield stress fluid is described and, based on which, there is provided a method comprises the steps of: vibrating a vibratory transducer at resonance at a first resonant mode in a yield stress fluid and making a first measurement of the resonant frequency; providing a vibration to liquefy at least a portion of the yield stress fluid around the one or more vibratory transducers; while said portion of the yield stress material is liquefied, vibrating a vibratory transducer at resonance at the first resonant mode in the yield stress fluid and making a second measurement of the resonant frequency; and estimating the yield stress of the yield stress fluid based on the first and second measurements. The vibration to liquefy yield stress fluid around the one or more transducers may be provided by the making of the second measurement at an increased amplitude of vibration relative to the first measurement.