Study of the parameters to generate different sizes of micro-droplets

Abstract

Separators are regarded as an integral part of oil and gas processing equipment. Because of the sales specification of the finished products, a high level of separation is needed. The separators that are available today are of considerable weight and size which drives great desire to reduce both properties. Two major factors are of great importance regarding the effect on downsizing the separators, these factors are the settling velocity of droplets and the time needed for coalescence. To study these factors is critical generate micro-droplets; however the generation of micro-droplets is still a challenge. This thesis was focused on the study of the parameters to generate micro-droplet in a wide range. Experiments were conducted using Exxsol D80 oil. Droplets in the range of 26 µm and 170 µm were created by electrohydrodynamic (EHD) application. It was found that the droplets size increased by the increasing of voltage pulse amplitude and pulse width, which corresponds to the existing literature. However the meniscus size is the key point to generated droplets over a wide range, so the approach was put on the generation of different droplet sizes for different menisci. Moreover a study of the relation between the needle shape and the drop size was performed without EHD application. Additionally a literature review of the different techniques to generate droplets was discussed in the theoretical part of this thesis.Further work is recommended, as the study of the variation height of the electrode and its relation with the drop size. Moreover, measuring the pressure applied into the syringe and controlling it is a key point for the meniscus size, which is not completely achieved in this work.