Flow curves, stress relaxation and creep measurements of starch gels

Flow curves, stress relaxation, and creep compliance were measured for various types of com starch gel that underwent different degrees of modification. The four starches were native corn starch, medium hydroxypropylated distarch phosphate, highly hydroxypropylated distarch phosphate, and distarch phosphate. All the starches exhibited pseudo-yield stress behavior at low shear rates and shear-thinning at higher shear rates. Stress relaxation data at different strains indicated strain-softening phenomenon for all starches. Higher degrees of cross-linking decreased the half relaxation time due to the addition of rigid filler into the matrix. Increasing the concentration increased the relaxation modulus for all starches. Creep compliance and recovery measurements were conducted over the range of 3.2 Pa-320 Pa. In the linear viscoelastic region, the compliance data were not dependent on the magnitude of stress applied. As concentration increases, higher stress magnitude leads to nonlinear behavior. The creep compliance data were fitted into the Ninomiya and Ferry relation from dynamic viscoelastic data and the Maxwell-Voigt model. Ninomiya and Ferry overpredicted the relaxation data while the Maxwell-Voigt model fitted the data reasonably well.