Couette Shear Cell (BSC)

The Couette-type shear cell consists of an inner quartz cylindrical stator (O.D. = 59mm for 1mm gap; 60mm for .5mm gap) and an outer quartz cylindrical rotor (I.D. = 61mm). Sample volumes required are approximately 11 ml to fill the .5 mm gap cell, and 14 ml to fill the 1 mm gap cell. The device is capable of producing steady rotation rates from 0.00001 revolutions per second (rps) to 10 rps. Converting rps to shear rate gives 389 Hz/rps for the .5 mm gap and 191 Hz/rps for the 1 mm gap cell. In addition to steady shear, the cell is capable of oscillatory shear and time-slicing of reversible shear-induced behaviors on the order of tens of milliseconds or longer.