Turbulent flow of unstable liquid‐liquid dispersions: Drop sizes and velocity distributions

Friction lossess, velocity distributions, and drop size distributions were obtained for unstable liquid‐liquid dispersions in turbulent flow. The friction losses and velocity profiles were used to determine effective viscosities which were correlated by the Einstein relation for dispersions in which μd/μc ≤ 15. When μd/μc ≈ 200 the dispersion could not be considered as a single‐phase fluid and exhibited non‐Newtonian characteristics. Drop size distributions were obtained from photographs of the flowing dispersion. These drop size distributions provided information concerning drop breakup and coalescence in the circulation system. From drop size distribution and effective viscosity measurements a criterion was obtained to determine if a dispersion could be treated as a homogeneous single‐phase fluid.