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Mechanical Engineering
University of California, Santa Barbara
Abstract
The problem of flow-induced coalescence between two drops
in a flow is difficult to study either experimentally or theoretically. In
this lecture,
I will describe recent efforts to study this process in a miniaturized flow
cell
that is designed to allow either head-on or glancing collisions between pairs
of equal size drops in the plane of a 2D flow. The objective is
quantitative data
on the conditions for coalescence to occur and corresponding theoretical
understanding of the problem. A related problem of great practical
significance is
polymer blending. In this case, the blending process can often be
characterized
as involving two viscous but Newtonian fluids with a large surfactant
(known as a
"compatibilizer") at the interface. One role of this surfactant is to inhibit
coalescence. Thus, we also consider the effect of a large surfactant on the
coalescence process.
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