Break-up of a drop in a stirred tank

Abstract

The drop break-up mechanism was studied in a stirred tank containing two immiscible liquids. The daughter drops formed by break-up of a single drop of known size were recorded photographically. From the experiments at constant agitator speed the following results were obtained. There is a critical drop size under which drops do not break up under given conditions. The break-up frequency increases approximately linearly with increase in drop volume. The number of daughter drops, v, is a random variable with a mean v > 2 which increases with the volume of the mother drop. The relative volume of a daughter drop has a β-distribution.