Study of the features of coagulation and coalescence of emulsion droplets in AN electromagnetic field
In this article, the authors study the processes of coagulation and coalescence of emulsion droplets exposed to electromagnetic fields. The attraction of the emulsion droplets in an electromagnetic field, the formation of coagulation chains and their coalescence of droplets due to the action on the dielectrophoresis. The article describes the laboratory bench and methods of sample preparation studies. The frequency of the electromagnetic field in which there is an effective attraction of droplets is in the range 70-100 kHz. According to the results of the study, the critical field strength required for coagulation and coalescence of emulsion droplets was identified. Critical electromagnetic field strength for different test samples varies and is of the order of 10 <sup>5</sup> V/m. The studies were conducted for the samples with different content of asphaltene in the carrier phase. The tendency of increasing of the critical field strength at which the coagulation and coalescence of the droplets with an increase in the quantitative content of asphaltenes in the emulsion was revealed. The results will be used in further studies of the properties of the shells booking the emulsion droplets.