Olivier Coutier-Delgosha
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, VA·Engineering
Crude oil pumped from underground reservoirs comes mixed with tiny droplets of water, forming an emulsion that must be separated before the oil can be used or shipped. Leftover water corrodes pipelines, so efficient separation (demulsification) matters to oil production.
- Fields
Engineering
Physics
- Topics
acoustic cavitation
demulsification
water-oil emulsion
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2027
What they work on
- Measure how the repeated growth and collapse of cavitation bubbles weakens and ruptures the surfactant film around water droplets in oil, using high-speed visualization of ultrasound-driven emulsions.
- Map the fluid motion and mechanical stresses that cavitation bubbles produce near emulsion droplets using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), a laser-based technique that tracks particles in a flow.
- Determine how bubble and droplet dynamics control droplet coalescence (merging) and the final separation of water from oil in ultrasound-treated emulsions.
- Run parametric studies with a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to test how key variables affect cavitation-driven demulsification across a wide range of physically relevant conditions.
More about the research
Ultrasound has become a popular way to break these emulsions. Earlier studies suggest that acoustic cavitation helps. Cavitation is the formation, growth and violent collapse of vapor bubbles driven by sound-wave pressure swings. Exactly how these bubbles help separate water from oil is still unclear.
Why it matters
Removing water from crude oil is a required step in oil production, and leftover water corrodes transport pipelines. A clear picture of how cavitation breaks emulsions could help engineers design more efficient ultrasound-based separation systems. The methods and knowledge could also support other ultrasound-based technologies that rely on cavitation.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Hector Gomez
Purdue University, IN·Engineering
Model how vapor bubbles form and evolve in turbulent liquids using high-fidelity simulations based on first-principles thermodynamics, generating data linking fluid motion to cavitation events.
Bryan Schmidt
Case Western Reserve University, OH·Engineering
Design lattices of phononic subsurfaces, engineered material units placed under a surface, and use stability theory and direct numerical simulations to test whether they suppress turbulence-causing disturbances downstream and from varying directions.
Vinicius Maron Sauer
California State University-Northridge, CA·Engineering
Design new non-premixed counterflow burners using quadric surfaces and their combinations to create unevenly curved flames like those in practical combustion systems.
The school
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: 35 labs on PI Pages, $657M a year on research, 496 research doctorates a year.
More about Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
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