Breakup dispersed phase

Atomization. A gas or Hquid may be dispersed into another Hquid by the action of shearing or turbulent impact forces that are present in the flow field. The steady-state drop si2e represents a balance between the fluid forces tending to dismpt the drop and the forces of interfacial tension tending to oppose distortion and breakup. When the flow field is laminar the abiHty to disperse is strongly affected by the ratio of viscosities of the two phases. Dispersion, in the sense of droplet formation, does not occur when the viscosity of the dispersed phase significantly exceeds that of the dispersing medium (13). 

Pipe Lines The principal interest here will be for flow in which one hquid is dispersed in another as they flow cocurrently through a pipe (stratified flow produces too little interfacial area for use in hquid extraction or chemical reaction between liquids). Drop size of dispersed phase, if initially very fine at high concentrations, increases as the distance downstream increases, owing to coalescence [see Holland, loc. cit. Ward and Knudsen, Am. In.st. Chem. Eng. J., 13, 356 (1967)] or if initially large, decreases by breakup in regions of high shear [Sleicher, ibid., 8, 471 (1962) Chem. Eng. ScL, 20, 57 (1965)]. The maximum drop size is given by (Sleicher, loc. cit.)... 

To understand how the dispersed phase is deformed and how morphology is developed in a two-phase system, it is necessary to refer to studies performed specifically on the behavior of a dispersed phase in a liquid medium (the size of the dispersed phase, deformation rate, the viscosities of the matrix and dispersed phase, and their ratio). Many studies have been performed on both Newtonian and non-Newtonian droplet/medium systems [17-20]. These studies have shown that deformation and breakup of the droplet are functions of the viscosity ratio between the dispersity phase and the liquid medium, and the capillary number, which is defined as the ratio of the viscous stress in the fluid, tending to deform the droplet, to the interfacial stress between the phases, tending to prevent deformation ... 

Mechanical compatibilization is accomplished by reducing the size of the dispersed phase. The latter is determined by the balance between drop breakup and coalescence process, which in turn is governed by the type and severity of the stress, interfacial tension between the two phases, and the rheological characteristics of the components [9]. The need to reduce potential energy initiates the agglomeration process, which is less severe if the interfacial tension is small. Addition... 

The interaction between the dispersed-phase elements at high volume fractions has an impact on breakup and aggregation, which is not well understood. For example, Elemans et al. (1997) found that when closely spaced stationary threads break by the growth of capillary instabilities, the disturbances on adjacent threads are half a wavelength out of phase (Fig. 43), and the rate of growth of the instability is smaller. Such interaction effects may have practical applications, for example, in the formation of monodisperse emulsions (Mason and Bibette, 1996). 

Atomization generally refers to a process in which a bulk liquid is disintegrated into small drops or droplets by internal and/or external forces as a result of the interaction between the liquid (dispersed phase) and surrounding medium (continuous phase). The term dispersed phase represents the liquid to be atomized and the atomized drops/droplets, whereas the term continuous phase refers to the medium in which the atomization occurs or by which a liquid is atomized. The disintegration or breakup occurs when the disruptive forces exceed the liquid surface tension force. The consolidating... 

Wieringa, J.A. Dieren, F. van Janssen, J.J.M. Agterof, W.G.M., 1996, Droplet breakup mechanisms during emulsification in colloid mills at high dispersed phase volume fraction, Chemical Engineering Research Design, 74, 554-562. 

Areas of negative interfacial tension develop between the two phases, causing spontaneous breakup of the disperse phase... 

Equation (A12) is widely used in RE, but it does not account for the specific interactions of the dispersed phase. In this respect current research is focused on drop population balance models, which account for the different rising velocities of the different-size droplets and their interactions, such as droplet breakup and coalescence (173-180). 

Although the dominant mixing mechanism of an immiscible liquid polymeric system appears to be stretching the dispersed phase into filament and then form droplets by filament breakup, individual small droplet may also break up at Ca 3> Ca. A detailed review of this mechanism is given by Janssen (34). The deformation of a spherical liquid droplet in a homogeneous flow held of another liquid was studied in the classic work of G. I. Taylor (35), who showed that for simple shear flow, a case in which interfacial tension dominates, the drop would deform into a spheroid with its major axis at an angle of 45° to the how, whereas for the viscosity-dominated case, it would deform into a spheroid with its major axis approaching the direction of how (36). Taylor expressed the deformation D as follows... 

Calabrese RV, Chang TPK, and Dang PT. Drop breakup in turbulent stirred-tank contactors. Part I Effect of dispersed-phase viscosity. AIChE J 1986 32 657-666. 

The solvent diffusion/spontaneous emulsification process can create much smaller droplet sizes than the solvent evaporation method. In this case, the dispersed phase is composed of a water-immiscible solvent and a water-miscible solvent, which is emulsified into an aqueous solution. The diffusion of the water-miscible solvent causes turbulence and further breakup of the droplets in the emulsion. The removal of solvent can be conducted similarly to the solvent evaporation method. 

Delichatsios and Probstein (D4-7) have analyzed the processes of drop breakup and coagulation/coalescence in isotropic turbulent dispersions. Models were developed for breakup and coalescence rates based on turbulence theory as discussed in Section III and were formulated in terms of Eq. (107). They applied these results in an attempt to show that the increase of drop sizes with holdup fraction in agitated dispersions cannot be attributed entirely to turbulence dampening caused by the dispersed phase. These conclusions are determined after an approximate analysis of the population balance equation, assuming the size distribution is approximately Gaussian. 

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