In the field of process engineering, modelling of processes aims to reach mathematical descriptivness and, thus, reduce the experimental effort during process design and increase process control. Profound understanding of the process must be considered a central prerequisite in this context. A mutual dependency between the particle properties (e.g. size and particle strength), particle stressing and formulation parameters has long since been identified for dispersing processes of nanoparticles in laminar shear flow. While these basic relationships have already been described for individual aspects, a comprehensive model-based description has not yet been carried out for the production process of highly viscous nanoparticulate suspensions in laminar shear flow. This is mainly due to the fact that the viscosity of nanoparticulate suspensions has not yet been sufficiently modelled. Viscosity is one of the key parameters for the stressing of particles in laminar shear flow, but undergoes constant change as the particle size distribution is altered during the dispersing process, which changes the particle interactions. Therefore, a largely mechanistic viscosity model for nanoparticulate suspensions was developed in this thesis in order to describe the rheological behavior of the suspension during the process. A genetic algorithm was developed and used for model development and parameterization. The model allows the description of viscosity as a function of solids content, particle size, temperature and shear rate. An extrapolation over the calibrated range is also possible. Based on known relationships to the stress of particles in highly viscous shear flow, this thesis develops a stress model for dispersion in laminar shear flow. Key element is the differentiation between effective and non-effective stressing, depending on whether the shear stress acting on the particle is sufficient to cause particle breakage. To parameterize the stress model, a process model was developed and applied in the form of a population balance. The combined use of the stress model and the process model has the potential to be used for the development and scale-up of kneading processes and can most probably be transferred to other dispersing devices.weiterlesen