Salt matters: How salt affects the rheological and physical properties of gelatine for analogue modelling

Gelatine is extensively used as analogue material for the easiness to tune its physical and rheological properties. The addition of salt to gelatine is generally adopted to increase the density of the material, improving the scaling of the models. However, the way the addition of salt changes the rheological properties of gelatine is generally underestimated. Here, we investigate both rheological and physical properties (i.e., density and transparency) of type A pig-skin 2.5 wt.% gelatine at T = 10 °C as a function of salt concentration, cNaCl, and ageing time. We established a standard preparation recipe and measuring protocol, yielding to uniform samples with reproducible behaviour. Rheometric measurements show that the presence of salt weakens the gelatine structure, with a decrease of both material rigidity and viscosity as cNaCl increases. Salted gelatine behaviour moves from viscoelastic to dominantly elastic as the ageing time increases. Density and cloudiness also increase with cNaCl. Finally, we present results from subduction interplate seismicity models performed with pure and salted gelatines, showing that the modified material may improve the modelling performance and open new perspectives in experimental tectonics.