DENSITY AND VISCOSITY OF LOW-MOLECULAR-WEIGHT TRIGLYCERIDES AND THEIRMIXTURES

The viscosities of tributyrin (C4:0) and binary mixtures of this trigl yceride with a diesel fuel, tricaproin (C6:0), and tricaprylin (C8:0) were determined for the temperature range -5 to 85 degrees C and for s hear rates of 1.62-64.7 s(-1). The resulting dynamic viscosities were fit to a power law model to obtain values for the consistency coeffici ent and the flow behavior index. These results indicated slightly pseu doplastic flow behavior (indices ranged from 0.94 to 0.99) for tributy rin and its mixtures. The calculated consistency coefficients for trib utyrin and those previously obtained far tricaproin, tricaprylin and t ricaprin were fit by a least-squares method to the three parameter Vog el model to account for the effect of temperature. An ideal solution r elationship and the Kendall-Monroe model were used to predict the dens ity and consistency coefficients, respectively, for binary and quatern ary mixtures of these low-molecular weight triglycerides.