Multiphase flows associated with interfacial dynamics, steep jumps in fluid properties and moving boundaries between different phases pose substantial computational challenges in terms of both modeling as well as computational efficiency. The present work extends a marker-based immersed boundary, or front tracking, technique to model the three-dimensional interfacial dynamics. It tracks the mov...

Experimental results are presented about the effects of ionic strength and pH on the mean drop-size after emulsification and on the coalescence stability of emulsions, stabilized by a globular protein beta-lactoglobulin (BLG). The mean drop-size is determined by optical microscopy, whereas the coalescence stability is characterized by centrifugation. In parallel experiments, the zeta-potential ...

The influence of molecular weight asymmetry across an interface on the transient behavior of the interfacial tension is investigated for two different polymer combinations, polybutadiene (PBD)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polybutene (PB)/PDMS. This choice ensures a minor diffuse interface using the first combination and a very diffuse interface in the latter case. Measurements of the interfa...

Stored emulsions undergo various destabilizing processes including creaming and coalescence of drops. Many experimental studies have been carried out in the past to quantify drop coalescence; however, the presence of two distinct types of coalescence mechanismssone due to the relative motion between the drops and the other due to their permanent proximity to each other in the creamshas not been...

The major importance of drop coalescence in a number of natural and industrial processes provides the motivation for fundamental experimental and theoretical studies on its mechanics. One of the main difficulties of such investigations is related with the presence of a thin liquid film, typically of order 10−4 of the drop size. In numerical studies of coalescence this requires very fine spatial...

The flow of liquids in unbounded geometry (i.e. without rigid boundary conditions) is encountered in jets and films. Another example is provided by the drainage of foams under gravity. The latter example has been largely investigated these last years [see e.g. Koehler, 2000; Cox, 2001; Pitois, 2005; Saint-Jalmes, 2006]. Most of previous studies consisted in macroscopic measurements performed at...

Solid particles floating at a liquid interface exhibit a long-ranged attraction mediated by surface tension. In the absence of bulk elasticity, this is the dominant lateral interaction of mechanical origin. Here, we show that an analogous long-range interaction occurs between adjacent droplets on solid substrates, which crucially relies on a combination of capillarity and bulk elasticity. We ex...

Two-phase systems of microstructured complex fluids are an important class of engineering materials. Their flow behaviour is interesting because of the coupling among three disparate length scales: molecular or supra-molecular conformation inside each component, mesoscopic interfacial morphology and macroscopic hydrodynamics. In this paper, we propose a diffuse-interface approach to simulating ...