This text has grown out of a variety of teaching and consulting
efforts. I have used part of the material for the past several years
in a course on polymer processing at the University of Minnesota
and nearly all of it in my graduate course, Principles and Applications
of Rheology. Much of my appreciation for the needs of the
industrial rheologist has come from teaching a number of short
courses on rheological measurements at Minnesota and for the Society
of Rheology and Society of Plastics Engineers. The University
of Minnesota summer short course has been taught for nearly
20 years with over 800 attendees. Many of the examples, the topics,
and the comparisons of rheological methods included here
were motivated by questions from short course students. Video
tapes of this course which follows this text closely are available.
My consulting work, particularly with Rheometrics, Inc., has provided
me the opportunity to evaluate many rheometer designs, test
techniques, and data analysis methods, and fortunately my contacts
have not been shy about sharing some of their most difficult
rheological problems. I hope that the book’s approach and content
have benefited from this combination of academic and industrial
applications of rheology.