Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Water-in-Oil Droplet Formation within a Co-Flow Channel

Two-phase systems are important tools for droplet formation that have received much attention in recent decades due to their vast applications. In the present work, the process of water-in-oil droplet formation, in a coaxial geometry using the fluid volume method, and the impact of effective parameters such as dispersed phase velocity and density and also interfacial tension are investigated. The results are used to produce spherical γ-alumina particles by the oil drop method. In this study, using a laboratory setup, the factors affecting the droplet formation process are investigated. Results are validated against laboratory data. The measurement error is about 5% for droplet size and about 4% for sphericity. Studies show that although the mentioned parameters have a great effect on droplet size and separation time, the dependency of droplets diameter on interfacial tension and dispersed phase density is higher. Increasing the interfacial tension causes increasing droplets size and separation time. Also increasing the density of the dispersed phase reduces the diameter of the droplets and increases separation time. Increasing the velocity also had a small effect, but lead to an increase in size and reduced droplets separation time.