Off-line capillary rheometry of corn starch: Effects of temperature, moisture content and shear rate

A capillary rheometer was used to determine the rheological behaviour of corn starch with moisture contents ranging from 27 to 37 g/100 g (wet basis), at temperatures of 85, 100 and 120 °C, and true wall shear rates ranging from 100 to 2000 s−1. It was found that the rheology of the system followed a pseudoplastic law and the interactions between the processing variables such as temperature, moisture content and shear rate were well correlated with viscosity for the experimental range of conditions considered in this work. The apparent viscosity decreased as moisture content, temperature and shear rate increased in agreement with previous work.