Mechanism of drop coalescence at the interface of two immiscible liquids

摘要

Several processes involve two immiscible liquid phases with dispersed dropssurrounded by a continuous phase. The drops coalesce for joining their mother phase.This phenomenon occurs in many industrial mixing, separation, as well as inenvironmental processes. This paper is focused on the problem of the coalescence of asingle drop at the planar interface of two immiscible liquids. An original model forcoalescence mechanism is proposed. It has been compared with some experimental dataof the literature. The comparisons are quite satisfactory.