Surfactants

The project envisages an experimental and CFD investigation of the stability of thin films of liquid flowing down inclined solid surfaces. Such flows frequently display a plethora of regimes as the flow rate is increased (meandering, braiding and many more) and knowledge of these leads to improved mass and heat transfer predictions in many industrial applications [1]. The stability of such flows sensitively depends on the wettability of the solid surface by the liquid. In this project, the student will build upon work by an existing Ph.D. student in the lab.

The crude oil in direct contact with mineral surface needs to be displaced using external medium (solvent + additives) in the secondary and tertiary phase of recovery. The mechanism of replacement is governed by the structural and energetic behaviour of interfacial system (solvent + additives + hydrocarbon oil) at the mineral surface. This project is aimed to obtained molecular understanding of the interfacial system (crude oil+solvent+mineral) to design better displacing agents for the economic recovery of oil.