Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.57, No.2, 578-589, 2018
The Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics to the Multiscale Study of Oil-in-Water Emulsions
Emulsions are widely used in different industries such as oil, food, pharmaceutics, and cosmetics. These systems, however, exhibit high degrees of complexity due to the interactions between the dispersed and continuous phase on different levels (i.e., molecular and microscopic) and the emergent properties generated by said interactions. In this work, the interrelationships among macroscopic, microscopic, molecular, process, and formulation variables in oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions were analyzed via a multiscale analysis. Furthermore, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was implemented in order to gain a better understanding of the link between process variables and other relevant responses. Relationships among elastic modulus, mean droplet diameter, zeta potential, stability, and incorporated energy measurements could be established. The simulation allowed for the observation of three-dimensional gradients in relative viscosity, droplet diameter, and dispersed phase volume fraction, as well as flow details for two of the studied impeller geometries.