Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.52, No.26, 9099-9105, 2013
Effects of Surfactant and Water Concentrations on Pipeline Flow of Emulsions
New experimental results are presented on the effects of surfactant and water concentrations on pipeline flow of emulsions. For a fixed water concentration of 30% by volume, the flow behavior of water-in-oil emulsions containing eight different surfactant concentrations (0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.5, and 2% by wt based on oil) was investigated in five different diameter horizontal pipes. The surfactant used was oil-soluble Emsorb 2503 (sorbitan trioleate). The influence of water concentration on the pipeline flow behavior of emulsions was determined by varying the water concentration from 30 to 80% by volume in increments of 5%. The emulsions were water-in-oil type until the water concentration was 40% by volume. Upon further increase in the water concentration, inversion of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion to oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion occurred at a water concentration of 45% by volume. The unstable W/O emulsion without surfactant exhibits drag reduction behavior in turbulent flow; that is, the friction factor data fall well below the single-phase Blasius equation. With the addition of surfactant, the W/O emulsion becomes more homogeneous and the friction factor data fall close to the Blasius equation. However, the surfactant stabilized W/O emulsions exhibit a significant delay in transition from laminar to turbulent regime. The delay in laminar to turbulent transition depends on the pipe diameter. The O/W emulsions obtained upon phase inversion of surfactant-stabilized W/O emulsion behave as truly homogeneous fluids in that there is no delay in transition and that the friction factor data follow the Blasius equation.