On the steady‐state drop size distribution in stirred vessels. Part I: Effect of dispersed phase viscosity

Abstract

Previous studies on emulsification have used the maximum drop size (dmax) or Sauter mean diameter ( ) to investigate the effect of viscosity on the drop size distribution (DSD), however, these parameters fall short for highly polydispersed emulsions. In this investigation (Part I), the steady‐state DSD of dilute emulsions is studied using of silicon oils with viscosities varying across six orders of magnitude at different stirring speeds. Different emulsification regimes were identified; our modeling and analysis is centered on the intermediate viscosity range where interfacial cohesive stresses can be considered negligible and drop size increases with viscosity. The bimodal frequency distributions by volume were well described using two log‐normal density functions. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 3293–3302, 2018