3.

MEASUREMENT OF VISCOSITY OF LIQUID

AIM
To measure the viscosity of a sample liquid

APPARATUS
1) Glass tube
2) Steel balls / Marbles
3) Retort stand and clamps
4) Weighing balance
5) Screw gauge
6) Force Sensor and connected Computer with sofware
7) Castor oil
8) Tweezers
9) Rubber bands for marking calibraton points
10) Cleaning accessories

THEORY

Viscosity i s a measure of the resistance o f a fuid which i s being deformed by either

shear stress or tensile stress. In everyday terms (and for fuids only), viscosity is “thickness”.
Thus, water is “thin”, having a lower viscosity, while honey is “thick”, having a higher viscosity.
Put simply, the less viscous the fuid is, the greater its ease of movement (fuidity). In general, in
any fow, layers move at diferent velocites and the fuid’s viscosity arises from the shear stress
between the layers that ultmately opposes any applied force.
In a Newtonian fuid, the relaton between the shear stress and the strain rate is linear
with the constant of proportonality defned as the viscosity. In the case of a non- Newtonian
fuid, the fow propertes cannot be described by a single constant viscosity. Some non-
Newtonian fuids thicken when a shear stress is applied (e.g. cornfour suspensions), whereas
some can become runnier under shear stress (e.g. non-drip paint). Industrially, understanding
the viscous propertes of liquids is extremely important and relevant to the transport of fuids
as well as to the development and performance of paints, lubricants and food-stufs.
Consider a body moving in a fuid feels a frictonal force in a directon opposite to its
directon of moton. The magnitude o f this force depends on the geometry of the body, its
velocity, and the internal fricton of the fuid. A measure for the internal fricton is given by the
dynamic viscosity η. For a sphere of radius r moving at velocity vin an infnitely extended fuid of
dynamic viscosity η, G.G. Stokes derived an expression for the frictonal force

F1 = 6 π η r v (1)
If the sphere falls vertcally in the fuid, afer a tme, it will move at a constant velocity v and all
the forces actng on the sphere will be in equilibrium (Fig. 1). the frictonal force F1which acts
upwards, the buoyancy force F 2 which also acts upwards and the downward actng gravitatonal
force F3. The two forces F2 and F3 are given by

F2 = (4π/3) r3 ρ1 g (2)
F3 = (4π/3) r3 ρ2 g (3)
ρ1 = Density of the fuid
ρ2 = Density of the sphere
g = Acceleraton due to gravity

The equilibrium between these three forces can be described by

F1 + F2 = F3 (4)

So viscosity, η= r2 g (5)

η= d2 g (6)
here d = diameter of the sphere.
where v can be determined by measuring the fall tme t over a given distance l.

Stoke’s law holds laminar fow.

Reynolds number Re = ( d v ρ1 )/η (7)

* In lab, Castor oil is our sample liquid. Its density depends upon the room temperature T ( in
̊C).

ρ1 = ρfuid = (975.102) - (0.713 T) (8)

PROCEDURE

1) Measure the mass of the steel ball / Marbles

2) Measure the diameter of the steel ball/ Marbles by using screw gauge.
3) Carefully clamp the glass tube to the retort stand and make sure it is vertcally aligned.
4) Place this Glass tube on the stand atached to the Force Sensor, which is connected to a
computer.
5) Choose marked calibrated positons and ensure that the ball indeed falls with terminal
velocity.
6) Choose calibrated positons. Atach a meter scale between this calibrated positons.
 7) Ensure that the ball indeed falls with terminal velocity.

8) Pick one of the given balls and roll it in the sample liquid to wet its surface thoroughly
before dropping into the glass tube.

9) Bring the ball with a tweezers over the tube and drop it carefully into the liquid at the
center of the tube.
10) Watch the ball falling centrally through the liquid.
11) Just before you drop the ball in the liquid, start the plotng sofware on the system,
which plots Force (in Newtons) Vs Time (in ms).
12) As the ball drops in the liquid to the tme it reaches the botom of the tube, there will
be a specifc patern formed over the already existng baseline.
13) You also measure the distance travelled in the tube, by the ball.
14) You then calculate velocity from two measurements. (I) distance travelled / (diference
in tme as can be read from the two values as startng from the ball touched the top of
the liquid to the botom) (II) Use Force values between the two points as mentoned
earlier and the tme values of the same in a tabular form and calculate acceleraton and
then velocity.
15) Use the relevant formulae to fnal calculate co-efcient of viscosity.

OBSERVATIONS AND CALCULATIONS

1) Find diameter of the ball (d)

2) Find the Terminal velocity (v) and

Distance between 1st to 2nd calibraton marks (l) =
Room temperature (T) in Å
C =
Density of the Liquid(castor oil) ρ1 =

Mass of the Sl Falling tme from Termainal Viscosity

Steel ball No 1st to 2nd Velocity (v) vmean η
M Calibraton mark (t) v = l/t
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
1
2
3
4
 5
6

Viscosity of the castor oil (η ) =

Table for calculaton of Velocity in the second method :

4) S.No. | Mass of the Ball | Time | Force | Acceleraton | Velocity

RESULT

1) Density of the liquid (Castor oil) at temperature T=…….. Å

C =
2) Viscosity of the liquid (Castor oil) η calculated =
ηgraph =

PRECAUTIONS
1) Avoid contaminatng the balls, use tweezers or tssue paper to hold the balls.
2) Drop the balls centrally into the sample liquid.

Units: The SI physical unit of viscosity is Pascal-second (Pa.s, equivalent to N.s/m 2or kg/ms). The
CGS unit is poise (P), named afer Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille. It is more commonly expressed as
centpoise (cP) or milli Pascal-second (mPa.s).
The conversion factor is 1cP = 1mPa· s = 0.001Pa·s.1 Poise = 100 cent Poise. Castor oil at room
temperature has a viscosity of ~ 650 cP or ~0.65N.s/m 2.