Investigation of various rheological models in suspensions containing tragacanth gum

Scaling methods has many equations that are used to create the general flow curve to describe flow behavior of systems with different viscosity, density and particle size. These methods can give a general flow curve for all concentrations in non-Newtonian media and a general flow curve obtained from one sample can be used to predict the flow curves of the same samples with different viscosities. The aim of this study was to evaluate various scaling and rheological model to investigate the flow curves of various suspensions consisting of tragacanth gum (TG) (0.5, 1% wt) and whey protein isolate (2, 4% wt), and to determine the best-scaling law and rheological model. The scaling methods were relative viscosity, Péclet number, and Reynolds number. The results showed that the best scaling method is Péclet number. The flow behavior of all samples was successfully modeled with the power-law, Ellis, and Cross models; the power-law model was found to the best describe the flow behavior of dispersions. The flow behavior index decreased and consistency index increased when TG concentration increased.