Mechanical energy balances for a capillary viscometer

The entrance and exit flow processes for a cylindrical geometry are analyzed by writing macroscopic mechanical energy balances for a capillary viscometer. These equations can be used to compute the entrance and exit excess dissipation integrals from measured pressure differences if viscometric normal stress data are available for the material of interest. Upper and lower bounds are derived for these integrals for cases when high shear rate normal stress data are not available. The utilization of macroscopic mechanical energy balances in the interpretation of capillary viscometer results is illustrated using numerical solutions for a Maxwell fluid and experimental pressure drop data for high density polythylene.