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Viscosity

Chapter · January 2018

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-73568-9_308

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Rheological properties 1

Viscosity

Robert (H.R.G.K.) Hack

Engineering Geology, ESA, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC),
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
Definition

Properties of deformation and flow of materials under stress. Rheology is the science concerning the
deformation and flow of materials under stress and includes elasticity, plasticity, and viscosity. Elasticity
and plasticity leading to deformation of ground under conditions common in engineering are discussed
in Mechanical Properties (Hack, 2018).
Viscosity is the resistance to gradual deformation of a medium under shear stress. The viscosity can be
independent from (‘Newtonian’ or ‘ideal-viscous’ media) or dependent on (‘Non-Newtonian’ media)
the shear strain-rate and time. Temperature, and confining pressure may also be of influence. Gases,
fluids and many ground materials behave viscous, and also ‘hard’ rocks may (seem to) behave viscous
over long timespans under high confining stress or temperature.
Ground materials are diverse and may be gases, fluids, solids (i.e., minerals, grains, and aggregates of
grains or minerals), and any mixture of these and also include man-made ground, such as fills and waste
dump material. Ground is commonly differentiated in soil and rock; soil being an aggregate of loose or
weakly-bonded particles, and rock consisting of particles cemented or locked together, giving rock a
tensile strength. Soil and rock are, by some, differentiated based on a compressive strength difference
with soil being weaker than 1 MPa and rock being stronger. A differentiation is made between ‘intact’
and ‘discontinuous’ ground, i.e. ground without respectively with distinct planes of mechanical
weakness (discontinuities) such as faults, joints, bedding planes, fractures, schistosity, etc. A
groundmass consists of (blocks of) intact ground with discontinuities, if present.
Viscosity
Viscosity is the resistance to gradual deformation of a medium and relates to the difference in shear
strain-rate (also ‘shear velocity’ or ‘rate of shear deformation’) in a flowing medium (Fig. 1a). Viscosity
is due to the friction between neighboring particles that move with different velocities and is dependent
on temperature and confining pressure for most media.
Rheological properties 2

Fig. 1. a) Viscosity in laminar flow; b) Viscosity dependent on shear strain-rate; c) Viscosity dependent on time
of shearing; d) Bingham plastic; solid under low and liquid under high shear stress (b-c modified from Barnes
2000; Rao 2007)
Newtonian or ideal-viscous media
Eq. [1] gives the mathematical formulation for the ‘dynamic viscosity’ (with symbol μdyn, µ or η) of
Newtonian media in which the viscosity is independent from the shear strain-rate and from time, which
is valid for air, gases and some liquids such as light-hydrocarbon oils and water under ‘normal’
conditions, i.e. engineering conditions on or near the Earth surface (Barnes 2000) (Fig. 1a-c).
𝛥𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦𝑥
𝜏𝑧𝑥 = 𝜇𝑑𝑦𝑛 𝑥 𝑥 = 𝜇𝑑𝑦𝑛 𝑥 𝑥 𝛾̇𝑧𝑥
𝛥𝑧
𝜏𝑧𝑥 = shear stress in x direction on plane with normal in z direction [Pa]
[1]
𝜇𝑑𝑦𝑛 𝑥 = dynamic viscosity in x direction [𝑃𝑎 ∙ 𝑠]
𝛥𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦𝑥 /𝛥𝑧 = 𝛾̇𝑧𝑥 = shear strain-rate = velocity difference in z direction
due to shear stress in x direction [1/s]
The ‘kinematic viscosity’ (with symbol μkin or ν) is the dynamic viscosity divided by the density of the
medium (ρ):
𝜇𝑑𝑦𝑛
𝜇𝑘𝑖𝑛 =
𝜌
𝜇𝑘𝑖𝑛 = kinematic viscosity [m2 /s] [2]
𝜇𝑑𝑦𝑛 = dynamic viscosity [𝑃𝑎 ∙ 𝑠]
𝜌 = density [𝑘𝑔/𝑚3 ]
Units for viscosity in eqs [1] and [2] are in SI units, but also often used are the non-SI units ‘Poise’ (=
0.1 Pa∙s) for dynamic viscosity and ‘Stokes’ (= 1 x 10-4 m2/s) for kinematic viscosity. The viscosity of
Newtonian media mostly decreases with increasing temperature and increases with increasing confining
pressure. Water is an exception as the viscosity of water with a temperature below 32° C and a confining
pressure less than 20 MPa decreases with confining pressure. Liquids lose their Newtonian behavior
and become non-Newtonian for very to extremely high shear strain-rates, e.g. mineral oils at more than
1 x 105 s-1 and water likely at more than 5 x 1012 s-1 (Barnes 2000). Table 1 gives indicative viscosity
values for various materials.
Non-Newtonian media
Most fluids, many Earth materials, and mixes of ground materials with gases and liquids behave as non-
Newtonian media. Non-Newtonian media have a viscosity that is dependent on the shear strain-rate,
history of shear strain-rate, shear stress, rate of stress change, or on other factors related to the stress
Rheological properties 3

environment apart from being dependent on temperature and confining pressure. Non-Newtonian media
are subject to extensive research and new features are regularly reported; a very brief and therefore
necessarily incomplete description follows. The different behavior is illustrated with typical examples;
however, various examples behave differently under different conditions or depending on details of
constituents, e.g., yoghurt may behave thixotropic or as Bingham plastic and many drilling muds as
shear thinning, thixotropic or Bingham.
In ‘shear thinning’ media, the viscosity is independent of time, but the viscosity decreases with
increasing shear strain-rate, e.g., quick sand, some high-temperature volcanic lavas, some drilling muds,
and tomato sauce (Fig. 1b). In ‘shear thickening’ also independent of time, the viscosity increases with
increasing shear strain-rate, e.g. cornstarch with water (oobleck). In ‘thixotropic’ and ‘rheopectic’ (or
‘anti-thixotropic’) media, the viscosity is dependent on the length of time of shearing (Fig. 1c). The
longer the medium is agitated or stressed the more the viscosity decreases respectively increases. Some
clays (some bentonite and montmorillonite), Portland cement, some drilling muds, and yoghurt are
examples of thixotropic media and some bentonite mixes, gypsum paste, and cream (the cream on top
of an ice-cream) of rheopectic media. ‘Bingham plastics’ behave solid under low shear stress and fluid
under high shear stress, the boundary being the ‘shear yield stress’ or ‘yield-point’ (Fig. 1d). Low-
temperature lavas, some pyroclastic flows, some drilling muds, cement slurry, yoghurt, and toothpaste
are examples.
Effective viscosity
Effective viscosity (also ‘apparent viscosity’) of a fluid is often defined as the viscosity following a
Newtonian medium (eq. [1]) whatever the character of the viscosity, i.e. the effective viscosity is then
the viscosity of an imaginary Newtonian fluid that gives the same shear stress at the same shear strain-
rate under particular conditions and at particular values or ranges of values of shear stress and shear
strain-rate. It should be realized that the effective viscosity value is then only valid under the same
conditions and the same values or ranges. This definition is commonly used for drilling fluids (Baker
Hughes 2006), but also used for other fluids, semi-solids, and solids.
Effective viscosity following a Newtonian medium is also used for semi-solids and solids of which is
not known whether the behavior is really viscous or is (partial) non-viscous such as flow of ground and
deformation of geological materials over long geological time spans. These show a behavior resembling
viscosity and likely can be formulated analogue to viscosity even if the materials would not be viscous
in a strict physical sense (Petford 2009).
Ground and viscosity
Viscosity governs the flow of gases and liquids through the ground via the small pores and narrow
channels between the pores. Gases with very low viscosity flow generally very easy, water considerably
less easy because of the higher viscosity and crude oil, with a larger viscosity than water, flows even
more difficult (Table 1). Ground consisting of loose particles (‘soil’) can also flow, for example, the soil
with relatively little water and high viscosity on a slope slowly moving downwards under gravity or
faster moving with more water and lower viscosity as ‘mudflow’. A high-temperature mix of gases and
particles may move down very fast on a slope of a volcano as a pyroclastic flow with very low viscosity.
Semi-solids and solids such as ice, rock salt, and rock masses have very high to extremely high
(effective) viscosity and are immobile in day-to-day perception. However, over long-time spans of years
(for example, ice in glaciers) or millions of years (rock masses) flow occurs. Semi-solids and solids are
likely to have a strong anisotropic viscosity due to orientation of minerals, particles, and discontinuities
(Hansen et al. 2016; Petford 2009).
Rheological properties 4

Table 1. Indicative (effective) dynamic viscosity values

Notes: (1) At 100 kPa. (2) At 27°C. (3) At 20°C. (4) Hot air/gas. (5) Depending on Liquid Index. (6) Back calculated from waste dump flows. (7)
Indicative only, heavily depending on composition, temperature, water, and gas content; values per range of temperatures typical for the type
of lava, lower values for higher temperatures per range. (8) Depending on ice type and burial time, etc. (9) Room temperature. (10) Depth < 5
km at 20 - 200°C. (11) Indicatiove only. (12) Depending on rock type and stress configuration; high values for 3 km depth below Earth surface,
lower values depth > 30 km at temperatures 100 - 900°C. Data: (a) CRC (2013) (b) Akbari and Mahmoudi (2008) (c) Yamamoto et al. (1993) (d)
Green and Perry (2008) (e) Crude Quality Inc. (2017) (f) Meyer and Attanasi (2003) (g) Widjaja and Hsien-Heng Lee (2013) (h) Huang et al.
(2013) (i) Dusseault (2001) (j) Lesher and Spera (2015) (k) Marshall (2005) (l) Barnes (2000) (m) Chemia et al. (2009) (n) Van Keken et al.
(1993) (o) Bürgmann and Dresen (2008) (p) Bills et al. (1994)

Summary
Rheology is an important feature in engineering geology. Historically elastic and plastic deformation of
solids and viscous behavior of gases and fluids were standard practice in engineering geology. However,
that many processes on and in the Earth surface can be (better) described with viscous behavior is
relatively new, improves understanding of processes, and has opened new areas of study in the Earth
sciences.
Cross-references
Mechanical Properties
References
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Bills BG, Currey DR, Marshall GA (1994) Viscosity estimates for the crust and upper mantle from
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 Rheological properties 5

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