| Abstract: | The central moment of the theory describing the merging (coalescence) of the drops of an emulsion is determination of the time of the approach of a drop or a number of drops colliding with a given drop in unit time. In the stage immediately preceding the merging of the drops the forces of the hydrodynamic braking of the approaching drops are found to be considerable. The role of these forces has been analyzed earlier for the case of the capture of small drops by large drops in an oncoming flow in the presence of an external electrical field 1] and for the problem of the  Brownian coalescence of drops, taking account of the effect of the electric double layer and of surface forces of interaction 2–4]. The present article considers the approach of drops with turbulent diffusion in an electrical field. Of the greatest interest is the sharp slowing of the approach due to the hydrodynamic interaction of the drops, considerably sharper than in the case of molecular diffusion 2]. As a result, the sharp acceleration of the approach and coalescence of drops with the action of an electrical field on an emulsion in a turbulent flow becomes understandable.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 47–55, May–June, 1976.The authors are grateful to G. I. Barenblatt, A. I. Leonov, V. I. Loginov, and L. P. Smirnov for their evaluation and criticism of the work. |
