The measurement of birefringent, viscous and dielectric properties of liquids under shear

The important design features of a Couette cell capable of measuring birefringence, viscosity and permittivity changes in shear are discussed. Described are the details of construction of such a cell which can perform one or all of these functions. The cell is capable of operating in the range of shear rates up to about 3*105 s-1 for dielectric and viscosity determinations and up to about 104 s-1 for double-refraction measurements. This paper concentrates primarily on the details pertinent to dielectric measurements.