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Updated: Jun 18, 2025

Microfluidic Devices for Characterizing Pore-scale Event Processes in Porous Media for Oil Recovery Applications
Published on: January 16, 2018
Bursting of Underwater Oil Drops
Varun Kulkarni1, Venkata Yashasvi Lolla1, Suhas Tamvada1
1Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, <a href="https://ror.org/02mpq6x41">University of Illinois</a>, Chicago, Illinois 60607, USA.
Abstract:
For decades, two main facets of underwater oil spills have been explored extensively-the rise of oil drops and resulting evolution of the oil slick at the air-water interface. We report on the bursting of rising oil drops at an air-liquid interface which precedes slick formation and reveal a counterintuitive bulge reversal that releases a daughter oil droplet inside the bulk as opposed to upward-shooting jets observed in bursting air bubbles. By unraveling the underlying physics we show that daughter droplet size and bulk liquid properties are correlated and their formation can be suppressed by an increase in the bulk viscosity.
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