AbstractThe rheological behaviors of semi‐aromatic transparent polyamide (SATPA) melt are investigated using a capillary rheometer. The effects of shear rate, shear stress, and temperature on the apparent viscosity ηa of SATPA are discussed. A correlation of non‐Newtonian index with temperature is obtained. The results show the shear thinning of SATPA; meanwhile ηa decreases with increasing temperature and shear rate, and the viscous flow activation energy is further obtained from temperature dependence of the samples. It was concluded that the apparent viscosity ηa is sensitive to temperature at lower shear rate owing to the higher viscous flow activation energy; on the contrary, the influence of temperature effect on the apparent viscosity becomes minor at higher shear rate due to the lower viscous flow activation energy. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 97: 1586–1589, 2005