DWR-Drag: A new generation software for the Double Wall-Ring Interfacial Shear Rheometer's data analysis

Abstract

The double wall-ring (DWR) rotational configuration is nowadays the instrument of choice regarding interfacial shear rheometers (ISR) in rotational configurations. Complex numerical schemes must be used in the analysis of the output data in order to appropriately deal with the coupling between interfacial and bulk fluid flows, and to separate viscous and elastic contribution or the interfacial response. We present a second generation code for analyzing the interfacial shear rheology experimental results of small amplitude oscillatory measurements made with a DWR rotational rheometer. The package presented here improves significantly the accuracy and applicability range of the previous available software packages by implementing: i) a physically motivated iterative scheme based on the probe's equation of motion, ii) an increased user selectable spatial resolution, and iii) a second order approximation for the velocity gradients at the ring surfaces. Moreover, the optimization of the computational effort allows, in many cases, for on-the-fly execution during data acquisition in real experiments.