Viscous liquids or gases are classified as fluids. Based on their viscosity, fluids can be classified as either thixotropic or rheopectic. The terms “Bingham” and “pseudoplastic” allude to two other fluid types. However, thixotropic is often associated with pseudoplastic unintentionally. Have you ever heard of thixotropic? What about pseudoplastic? What’s the difference between them? Well, the essential difference between these two kinds of fluids depends on the force applied. When a force is applied, the viscosity of thixotropic drops, whereas the viscosity of pseudoplastic rises.
If you are still confused about those two terms, you’ve clicked the right article to find out more information about them. In this article, we are going to tell you the difference between thixotropic and pseudoplastic.
What is Thixotropic?
Thixotropic functionality can be used to describe several everyday items. The reason why daily essentials like toothpaste can become liquid when they are being removed out of the tube and quickly return to their solid condition can be explained with the help of the thixotropy feature. When exposed to constant shear force, such as during the mixing process, some products have a feature known as thixotropy that causes them to alter their viscosity and become even more fluid. The fluid becomes less viscous the longer it is subjected to shear force.
A thixotropic fluid is immiscible under normal circumstances, but when it is subjected to shear force, it becomes liquid and maybe even more fluid. When an abrupt change in shear or strain rate actually took place, this kind of product takes a while to attain its viscosity. Shear-tinning flow always co-exists with thixotropic features.
An application where the material must flow smoothly during the dispensing process but then should remain in place after with the help of the thixotropic feature. This prevents materials from drooping or slumping after application and enables precise patterning and shape dispensing.
Thixotropic fluids are frequently used in the food business, commercial applications (paints, muds, and clay), and the construction sector (liquid cement and concrete). You can ask thixotropic agent Malaysia for more information about these applications. Other examples of thixotropic fluids include any type of cream, gelatine, clay, synovial fluid, and hydrogenated oil.
What is Pseudoplastic?
Shear-tinning fluids are the other name for pseudoplastic fluids. With an increase in shear rate, these fluids’ viscosity will drop. Pseudoplastic fluids are gases or liquids that become more and more viscous when a force is applied. Bringham fluid is the antithesis of pseudoplastic fluid. It is a temporal-dependent fluid as the amount of shear force that is applied to the fluid over a specific period of time affects how viscosity changes. A few common examples of pseudoplastic fluids are milk, blood, and sand which are significantly more prevalent than dilatant fluids.
In a nutshell, the behavior of the fluid in response to the application of a force can be used to classify two different types of fluids: thixotropic and pseudoplastic. As mentioned before, thixotropic and pseudoplastic fluids vary primarily in that the viscosity of thixotropic fluids drops when a force is applied, whereas, in pseudoplastic fluids, the viscosity will keep increasing.