Application of the Williams–Landel–Ferry model to the viscosity–temperature relationship of Australian honeys Original Research Article

The rheological behaviour of nine unprocessed Australian honeys was investigated for the applicability of the Williams–Landel–Ferry (WLF) model. The viscosity of the honeys was obtained over a range of shear rates (0.01–40 s−1) from 2° to 40 °C, and all the honeys exhibited Newtonian behaviour with viscosity reducing as the temperature was increased. The honeys with high moisture were of lower viscosity. The glass transition temperatures of the honeys, as measured with a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), ranged from −40° to −46 °C, and four models (WLF, Arrhenius, Vogel–Tammann–Fulcher (VTF), and power-law) were investigated to describe the temperature dependence of the viscosity. The WLF was the most suitable and the correlation coefficient averaged 0.999±0.0013 as against 0.996±0.0042 for the Arrhenius model while the mean relative deviation modulus was 0–12% for the WLF model and 10–40% for the Arrhenius one. With the “universal” values for the WLF constants, the temperature dependence of the viscosity was badly predicted. From non-linear regression analysis, the constants of the WLF models for the honeys were obtained (C1=13.7–21.1; C2=55.9–118.7) and are different from the universal values. These WLF constants will be valuable for adequate modeling of the rheology of the honeys, and they can be used to assess the temperature sensitivity of the honeys.