Patent ID: 6910367

Claim:
A method of characterizing the micro-rheological properties, as well a more accurate particle size distribution, of structured concentrated dispersions of finite mass particulates, having some interparticle connections, and comprising the steps of: measurement of the ultrasound attenuation spectra of the dispersion using prior art; employing a prediction theory which estimates the attenuation spectra based not only on the prior art parameters of the particle size distribution, but now augmented to include the viscoelastic properties of the interparticle links between the particles; utilizing an analysis engine to automatically adjust not only the parameters of the particle size distribution, but in addition viscoelastic properties, to determine the optimum values of these parameters that achieve the best fit between the measured attenuation spectra and that predicted by this augmented theory; and finally using these optimum values for characterizing both the particle size distribution and the viscoelastic properties of the links between the particles.