Rheometric Analysis of Viscous Material Mixtures Used in the Tectonic Laboratory (TecLab) at Utrecht University, Netherlands

This dataset contains measurements of viscous and viscoelastic materials that are used for analogue modelling. Proper density and viscosity scaling of ductile layers in the crust and lithosphere, requires materials like Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), to be mixed with fillers and low viscoity silicone oils. Changing the filler content and filler material, the density, viscosity and power-law coefficient can be tuned according to the requirements. All materials contain a large amount of PDMS and all but one a small amount of an additional silicone oil. Adding plasticine or barium sulfate lead to shear thinning rheologies with power-law exponents of p<0.95. Adding corundum powder only has a minor effect on the power-law exponent. Some mixtures also have an apparent yield point but all are in the liquid state in the tested range. In general, the rheologies of the materials are very complex and in some cases strongly temperature dependent. However, in the narrow range of relevant strain rates, the behaviour is well defined by a power-law relation and thus found suitable for simulating ductile layers in crust and lithosphere.