Movement of dispersed droplets of W/O emulsion in a uniform DC electrostatic field: Simulation on droplet coalescence

Abstract

Considering the droplet coalescence, the motion of a group of dispersed droplets in W/O emulsion in a DC electric field is simulated. The simulation demonstrates the evolutions of droplet number, size as well as its distribution, local concentration distribution and droplet size-velocity relation with the applied time of electric field. The simulated average droplet size is roughly consistent with the experimental value. The simulated variation of droplet number with time under several applied voltages shows that increasing voltage is more effective for raising the rate of droplet coalescence than extending exerting time. However, with the further raise of applied voltage, the improvement in droplet coalescence rate becomes less significant. The evolution of simulated droplet size–velocity relationship with time shows that the inter-droplet electric repulsion force is very strong due to larger electric charge on the droplet under higher applied voltage, so that the magnitude and the direction of droplet velocity become more random, which looks helpful to droplet coalescence.