Rheological behaviour of clay-based slurries: effect of the preparation methods (Lab-scale or typical industrial procedures)

Abstract

This work attempts to study the effect of the use of different preparation methodologies on the rheological behaviour of ceramic suspensions commonly used in the tile-making industry. The main objective is to set-up an alternative lab-scale preparation/measurement routine that closely reproduces typical industrial processing conditions. In this sense, several relevant operation parameters were studied, namely temperature, water type, and stirring conditions. Results confirmed that the slurry preparation procedure induces significant changes on the rheological behaviour, which suggests the need to implement new routines that might be sensible to those differences.