the rheological behaviour of a complex fluid can be described
with two values: the ‘‘consistency coefficient” K, and the ‘‘flow
behaviour index” n. There were no significant differences in K or
n between the 3 unheated solutions, with values for K and n ranging
from 23.3 103 to 35.2 103 Pa sn and from 810 103 to
854 103
, respectively.
The apparent viscosity increased significantly on sterilisation
from 9.79 to 17.0 mPa s and from 9.22 to 19.9 mPa s in the
MPI-MD17 and MPI-CSS38 solutions, respectively (Table 1).
The apparent viscosity of the heated MPI-C, MPI-MD17 and