| Summary: | Drop size distributions in liquid-liquid dispersion are essential in industrial processes as it involve mass and heat transfer between the phases. An experimental investigation was conducted to study liquid-liquid dispersion in stirred vessel. The objective of this experiment is to study the effects of dispersed phase viscosity (moderate to high) on the mean drop size, d32 and drop size distributions at different impeller speed. Different grades of silicone oils were used to create oil in water dispersions with surfactant stabilization and by using Rushton turbine as impeller. Laser diffraction technique (Malvern Mastersizer 2000) was used to measure the mean drop size and distributions. Results showed that mean drop size, d32 are affected by dispersed phase viscosity especially at high dispersed phase viscosity. At low viscosity, higher uniformity of drop sizes was produced as higher drop size distribution curve was obtained and the curve shifted to the left of the graph when the
impeller speed was increased. Higher viscosity exhibit larger change in d32 as the impeller speed increase (92.76%) compared to low viscosity (44.03%) which is caused by different breakage mechanism.
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