Victor Voulgaropoulos

Victor Voulgaropoulos received his Diploma in Chemical Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2013. His final year research project was centred on developing a mathematical model to capture the dynamic operation of a photobioreactor and the selective cultivation strategies of microalgae. He stayed a consequent year at the same Department where his research was focused on studying complex fluids in multiphase systems. In September of 2014 he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCL for his PhD studies. His current research project is in dispersed liquid-liquid flows in pipes and in collaboration with Chevron Energy Technology.

Research project

Title: Flow characteristics and separation properties of liquid-liquid dispersions

Mainly motivated by the great industrial interest around them, oil-water flows in pipes have been investigated to an extended degree in the last decades. However, the dynamics of the transitions between flow patterns and the physics around the different dispersed flow structures encountered in pipeline flows have yet to be fully understood. Developing predictive models that can describe accurately the physical phenomena during the flow of multiphase mixtures will lead to the design of efficient oil exploration and transportation facilities.

In this research project, a study focusing on the actuation and the flow characteristics of concentrated liquid-liquid dispersions is conducted. Understanding the different flow patterns observed is fundamental and for this reason information on the phase continuity and axial distribution of these flows can prove crucial. The stability of the dispersions and their segregation properties are also investigated. The evolution of the drops along the pipe and their size change due to the coalescence and breakage mechanisms are analysed both experimentally and numerically.

To better understand these mechanisms, the coalescence procedure is investigated separately in a confined system, where a liquid droplet is placed on a liquid-liquid interface. The study of the film drainage dynamics and the velocity field during its coalescence will provide an insight on the framework of the internal flows during interactions between droplets and droplet-interface and will help improve current population balance equation models.

Education

Diploma of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, 2013