Our previous work with PVC plastisols showed that pseudoplastic behavior under increasing frequency of dynamic measurement was a result of the development of an immobilized layer. Subsequently, the dynamic viscosity and the storage modulus of the mobile phase were evaluated. The samples consisted of fine and coarse particles, of which the fine/coarse ratio was varied. The present work relates the storage modulus at different frequencies to the fine/coarse ratio through a model network consisting of particle-particle contacts. The contacts are of three kinds, fine-fine (f-f), fine-coarse (f-c), and coarse-coarse (c-c). The average number of contact points per particle has been evaluated for the above kinds of contacts at different frequencies. Also, a number of particles participating in the network have been evaluated as a relative measure. At lower frequency relatively larger numbers of f-f contact points exist per particle but fewer numbers of particles participate in the network. Therefore, the network is rather loose. The f-c contact shows a similar trend but fewer contact points per particle at all frequency levels. The c-c contact is limited to a pair formation, i.e., only 0.5 contact point per particle on average. However, c-c contact contributes significantly to the magnitude of the modulus, because of the size of the particle. At the higher frequency there are fewer f-f contacts, but a larger number of particles are participating in the network. The trend with the f-c contact is very similar. The c-c contact increases significantly at the higher frequencies. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).
