The impact of temperature on the rheological behaviour of anaerobic digested sludge

The rheological properties of municipal anaerobic digested sludge rheology are temperature dependent. In this paper, we show that both solid and liquid characteristics decrease with temperature. We also show that the yield stress and the high shear (Bingham) viscosity are the two key parameters determining the rheological behaviour. By normalising the shear stress with the yield stress and the shear rate with the yield stress divided by the Bingham viscosity, a master curve was obtained, independent of both temperature and concentration. We also show that the rheological behaviour is irreversibly altered by the thermal history. Dissolution of some of the solids may cause a decrease of the yield stress and an increase of the Bingham viscosity. This result suggests that the usual laws used to describe the thermal evolution of the rheological behaviour of fluids are no longer valid with anaerobic digested sludge. Finally, the impact of temperature and thermal history have to be taken into account for the design of engineering hydrodynamic processes such as mixing and pumping.

• In this paper, we explored the influence of the temperature on the rheological behaviour of digested sludge.
• We showed the higher the temperature, the fluider the sludge but a master curve can be obtained.
• We demonstrated that the yield stress and the Bingham viscosity are the two main parameters.
• We highlighted the temperature has an irreversible impact on the rheological behaviour.
• Finally, we demonstrated the usual temperature laws cannot be used because of the irreversible composition change.