Abstract
Depending on the range of shear rates, temperatures and concentrations, the potato starch suspension in water behaves as a typical dilatant system. The flow curves of the suspension at various concentrations and temperatures were obtained by using a Couette type rotational viscometer. The flow mechanism of the suspension is explained by a structure model of starch granules in the suspension. Based on the experimental results, a general flow equation for the dilatant system is proposed. By analyzing the temperature dependency of the relaxation time, the activation enthalpy and activation entropy for flow in the starch-water suspension were calculated, the former being about 10 kcal/mol.