Effect of glycerol concentration and temperature on the rheological properties of cassava starch solutions
Abstract Glycerol/starch (G/S) solutions were prepared at different concentrations, with a weight ratio of G/S=0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5, and rheological properties were analyzed at 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70°C. Power law dependency of the apparent viscosity as a function of the shear rate is the most appropriate model for describing the rheological behavior of cassava starch solutions as a function of glycerol concentrations. All solutions showed a pseudoplastic behavior; the flow index (n) did not show significant changes as a function of temperature and glycerol concentration. However, the apparent viscosity (μa) and the consistency coefficient (K) did show strong variations with temperature and glycerol content. The temperature variation of both μa and K were better fitted to an exponential model type exp(Ea /RT), logμa(K) vs. 1000/T. The activation energy of the K data for the solution without glycerol (G/S=0.0) was 13.64 KJ/mol, and it decreased with increasing the content of glycerol in the solutions, becoming 6.14 KJ/mol for G/S=0.5. On the contrary, the activation energy for the μa data increased when increasing the glycerol concentration. The effect of glycerol concentration was also modeled using polynomial and exponential fittings.