Rheology of Viscous Materials for Centrifuge Experiments

Three viscous material mixtures—PP45, SCA705, and SCA7020—were analyzed for rheometric properties at the Helmholtz Laboratory for Tectonic Modelling. Rotational tests measured shear rates from 10^-4 to 1 s^-1, and temperature tests covered a range of 15 to 30°C. The dataset was produced by Frank Zwaan of the University of Bern and applied in Zwaan et al. (2020).

Use Cases

• Calibrating physical analog models based on shear-thinning behavior and power law exponents.
• Simulating temperature-dependent viscosity changes in tectonic materials.
• Designing centrifuge experiments using the specified material mixtures and densities.

Strengths

• Material compositions and densities are precisely defined, e.g., PP45 has a density of 1520 kg/m³.
• Shear-thinning behavior is quantified with specific power law exponents, such as 4.8 and 2.6 for PP45.
• Temperature-dependent viscosity changes are measured with rates like -3.8% per °K for PP45.

Limitations

• Row count and file format are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Tectonic Modelling Laboratory of CNR-IGG at the University of Florence; analyzed at Helmholtz Laboratory for Tectonic Modelling (HelTec), GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.

Collection Method

Rheometric analysis using an Anton Paar Physica MCR 301 rheometer in a plate-plate configuration.

Geography

Data originates from laboratories in Florence, Italy, and Potsdam, Germany.