The stress-state in a torsion shear cell filled with a Newtonian fluid

The flow in a torsional shear cell is investigated with the pu,pose of find ing a measure for the wall effect due to strongly nonuniform flow in the vi cinity of the edge of the top platen. Various laminar flow problems are ana lysed that are relevant to this set-lip. These include pure shearing flow o f a single fluid in a both an infinite and finite cell, as well as pure she ar of a two-fluid system in a finite cell. For pure shearing flow it is fou nd that the extent of the wall effect is of the order of magnitude of the d epth of the fluid layer. For piston flow the wall effect is entirely determ ined by boundary conditions at the bottom of the cell.