Experimental research and mathematical modeling of isothermal separation of polydisperse emulsion system using quasi-monodisperse approach

An experimental study and mathematical modeling of the polydisperse water-in-oil emulsion gravitational separation in a rectangular cell have been carried out. An approach based on the analysis of the emulsion sample images obtained at different magnifications of an optical microscope was used to construct a histogram of the initial emulsion drops size distribution. The distribution curves of the droplets concentration along the height are constructed based on the results of digital processing of emulsions photographic images obtained in the course of an experiment on the gravitational separation of the emulsion. A technique for numerical simulation of the polydisperse emulsion system separation is proposed, based on considering a polydisperse system as a set of quasi-monodisperse systems and on jointly solving the equations for the different sizes droplets settling in the one-liquid approximation.