Forced spreading and rheology of starch gel: Viscoelastic modeling with fractional calculus

We study spreading and rheological properties of potato starch gel which is a non-Newtonian fluid. An interesting oscillatory behavior is observed when the gel spreads on a glass surface under compression. The interface at the boundary of the area of contact of fluid and solid also shows an instability. The smooth circular boundary becomes wavy when oscillations in the contact area appear. A rheological study shows strong shear thinning and creep. We develop a non-linear visco-elastic model incorporating generalized calculus, which successfully reproduces the peculiarities in the oscillatory spreading as well as the creep measured at constant stress. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.