Fluids, Free Full-Text

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Suspensions and emulsions are prone to kinetic instabilities of sedimentation and creaming, wherein the suspended particles and droplets fall or rise through a matrix fluid. It is important to understand and quantify sedimentation and creaming in such dispersed systems as they affect the shelf-life of products manufactured in the form of suspensions and emulsions. In this article, the unhindered and hindered settling/creaming behaviors of conventional emulsions and suspensions are first reviewed briefly. The available experimental data on settling/creaming of concentrated emulsions and suspensions are interpreted in terms of the drift flux theory. Modeling and simulation of nanoparticle-stabilized Pickering emulsions are carried out next. The presence of nanoparticles at the oil/water interface has a strong influence on the creaming/sedimentation behaviors of single droplets and swarm of droplets. Simulation results clearly demonstrate the strong influence of three-phase contact angle of nanoparticles present at the oil/water interface. This is the first definitive study dealing with modeling and simulation of unhindered and hindered creaming and sedimentation behaviors of nanoparticle-stabilized Pickering emulsions.