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Heat transfer and mixing in turbulent water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsions

Francesca Mangani1, Alessio Roccon1,2, and Alfredo Soldati1,2,*

  • 1Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, TU-Wien, 1060 Vienna, Austria
  • 2Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy

  • *Contact author: alfredo.soldati@tuwien.ac.at
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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 064502 – Published 5 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/wsc4-44wc

Abstract

We numerically investigate turbulent heat transfer in water-in-oil (W/O) and oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions using direct numerical simulations coupled with a phase-field method. Heat is treated as a passive scalar, initially confined within the dispersed phase and subsequently transferred to the carrier fluid. The two emulsions share identical density and thermal diffusivity, while the oil phase is four times more viscous than water. To isolate convective effects, the same Péclet number (Pe=2400) is imposed in both configurations. Viscosity contrast strongly affects local flow and scalar dynamics, producing enhanced velocity fluctuations and mixing in the water phase and reduced activity in the oil phase. Reversing the dispersed and carrier phases redistributes these local mixing mechanisms between the drop interior and the surrounding fluid. This redistribution leads to similar global heat-transfer rates and comparable thermal transient in both emulsions, despite fundamentally different phase-conditioned flow and mixing dynamics.

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 064502– Published 5 June, 2026
  • Received 11 February 2026
  • Accepted 20 May 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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