Umudike Journal of Engineering and Technology

The Bingham Plastic model and the Power Law model have been used to determine whether they describe appropriately the rheology of Ubakala clay suspensions, after proving of course that the clay is actually bentonitic via X-Ray Diffraction and X-ray Fluorescence analysis. The mud samples were formulated by beneficiating Ubakala mud at 24.5g /350ml of water with various concentrations of Carboxyl Methyl Cellulose (CMC) and Sodium Carbonate (Na2CO3) to improve properties. Rheological properties of the samples were determined using a rheometer (OFITE model 900 viscometer). Plots of shear stresses against shear rates were obtained. Microsoft Excel software (Microsoft Office, 2007) was use to determine the rheological parameters for both the Bingham Plastic model and the Power Law model. The results showed that both models describe well the experimental data with good statistical indicators. The coefficient of determination, R2, for the Bingham Plastic model had an average value of 0.9772 and that for the Power Law model had an average value of 0.908. Summarily, the results showed that the Bingham Plastic model fitted the experimental data better than the Power Law model did.