Rheology of Gelatinised Starch Suspensions

When starch powders are mixed with water and heated at or above the gelatinisation temperature, the granules absorb large quantities of water and form a viscous paste. The gelatinised pastes are shear‐thinning fluids, whose flow curves fit the expression n̈= k γ m over a wide range of shear rates. Behaviour at very low shear rates indicates the existence of a yield stress. Under oscillatory shear the elastic moduli of the pastes considerably exceed the loss moduli, and both show only weak dependence on frequency over the range 0.002‐2.5 Hz. The apparent viscosities, pseudoplasticity constants, yield stresses and elastic moduli of the pastes are all concentration dependent, assuming significant values only when the starch level exceeds a minimum concentration. In many cases this threshold concentration corresponds closely to the point at which the volume of flocculated swollen starch granules just fills the total volume of the system.