WIT Press


An Ellipsoidal Droplet Model For Dilute Emulsions: Application To Complex Mixing Flows

Price

Free (open access)

Volume

42

Pages

10

Published

2003

Size

621.96 kb

Paper DOI

10.2495/MPF030251

Copyright

WIT Press

Author(s)

C.L. Tucker III, C. A. Florek & T. Pham

Abstract

An ellipsoidal droplet model for dilute emulsions: application to complex mixing flows C.L. Tucker 111, C.A. Florek & T. Pham Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering University of Illinois at Urbuna-Chnpaign, USA Abstract A compact droplet model and numerical simulation are used to examine the behavior of multiphase fluids in complex mixing flows. The two-dimensional, timeperiodic fluid between eccentric cylinders is used as a prototypical chaotic mixing flow. The multiphase fluid is a dilute dispersion of Newtonian droplets in a Newtonian matrix. The droplets are assumed to be much smaller than the mixer dimensions, and to have no interfacial tension, a situation for which there is an exact, yet compact, model for droplet deformation. We examine the spatial distribution of droplet stretching, as well as global stretching statistics, for a variety of droplet-to-matrix viscosity ratios. Chaotic flows are able to stretch high-viscosity droplets (which cannot be stretched in simple she

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