Modelling of rheological behaviour of soursop juice concentrates using shear rate-temperature-concentration superposition

The effect of temperature and concentration on rheological behaviour of freeze dried soursop juice concentrates were investigated using a rheometer over a wide range of temperatures (10-70 degrees C) and concentrations (10-50 degrees Brix) at shear rates of 0-400 1/s. The Power law is the best fitted model to the rheological data due to the high value of coefficient of determination (R-2 = 0.9989). The soursop juice concentrates exhibited shear thinning or pseudoplastic behaviour with n < 1. The consistency coefficients dependency on temperature and concentration were well described by Arrhenius relationship and exponential relationship respectively. The flow activation energy of soursop juice concentrates were 8.32-30.48 klimol. The superposition technique with Power law model sufficiently modelled the overall rheological characteristics of soursop juice concentrates into a single master curve using shift factors based on double shifting steps with R-2 = 0.9184. This technique also showed that the soursop juice concentrates increases in viscosity and pseudoplasticity behaviour with concentration. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.