A numerical look at mayonnaise

摘要

Emulsions play an important part in our daily lives, although we tend to be unaware of the fact. We take much of our food in emulsified form, and crude oil extraction often involves a constant battle between two non-mixing (and therefore often emulsifying) liquids, water and oil. The coming and going of such an emulsion is a delicate performance of drops that merge, divide, and collide in a hostile environment — depending on what that environment is doing at the time. Romanian physicist Florin Ovidiu lancu has made an in-depth study of the behaviour of drops, and at the Applied Physics department of TU Delft he has developed a mathematical model that reveals their erratic behaviour. The mathematical model is now being tested and validated at the Delft section for Fluid Dynamics, and will be put to use within the FOM projects Mesoscopics and macroscopics of drop coalescence and Liquid-liquid dispersions in combination with turbulence. The knowledge can then be used to increase the yield of oil extraction, create lower fat margarines, or improve printing inks.