Pieter De Bruyn

The effect of geometrical confinement on coalescence efficiency of droplet pairs in shear flow

Droplet coalescence is determined by the combined effect of the collision frequency and the coalescence efficiency of colliding droplets. In the present work, the effect of geometrical confinement on coalescence efficiency in shear flow is experimentally investigated by means of a counter rotating parallel plate device, equipped with a microscope. The model system consisted of Newtonian droplets in a Newtonian matrix. The ratio of droplet diameter to plate spacing (2R/H) is varied between 0.06 and 0.42, thus covering bulk as well as confined conditions. Droplet interactions are investigated for the complete range of offsets between the droplet centers in the velocity gradient direction. It is observed that due to confinement, coalescence is possible up to higher initial offsets. On the other hand, confinement also induces a lower boundary for the initial offset, below which the droplets reverse during their interaction, thus rendering coalescence impossible. Numerical simulations in 2D show that the latter phenomenon is caused by recirculation flows at the front and rear of confined droplet pairs. The lower boundary is independent of Ca, but increases with increasing confinement ratio 2R/H and droplet size. The overall coalescence efficiency is significantly larger in confined conditions as compared to bulk conditions.

The effects of geometrical confinement and viscosity ratio on the coalescence of droplet pairs in shear flow

The effects of geometrical confinement and viscosity ratio on droplet coalescence in shear flow are experimentally investigated by means of a counter rotating parallel plate device, equipped with a microscope. The ratio of droplet diameter to gap spacing is varied between 0.03 and 0.33 to study both bulk and confined conditions. Three grades of a Newtonian droplet material are combined with a Newtonian matrix, resulting in three different viscosity ratios, namely, 0.1, 1.1, and 2.6. The effects of confinement are qualitatively similar for all three viscosity ratios. For each system, confinement decreases the coalescence angle and renders coalescence possible up to higher capillary numbers and initial offsets. Moreover, for all three viscosity ratios, confinement induces a lower initial offset boundary below which the approaching droplets reverse flow direction without coalescence. However, there are quantitative differences between the systems. With increasing viscosity ratio, the critical capillary number and critical upper and lower offset boundaries decrease. Since the decrease of the upper offset boundary is more predominant, the coalescence efficiency decreases with viscosity ratio. The droplet trajectories of interacting droplets are affected by both the viscosity ratio and geometrical confinement, which clearly has implications on the coalescence behavior.