An optical study of interfacial turbulence in a liquid-liquid system

In order to make clear the relation between the mass-transfer rate and the mechanism of interfacial turbulence in a liquid-liquid system a fundamental, qualitative study of interfacial turbulence was carried out. The mass transfer of propionic acid in the di-n-butylphthalate-water system was observed in a well devised test cell, and the concentration profile of propionic acid near the interface measured by microinterferometric and Mach-Zender interferometric methods. When these concentration profiles had a typical pattern, we defined them as the interfacial turbulence (turbulence) and observed them qualitatively.

The following results were obtained from these experiments:

1. (1) The existence of stable and oscillatory turbulence in the interfacial turbulence.

2. (2) Information about the process of how some small concentration discrepancies, after making the interface, develop to the interfacial turbulence.

3. (3) Information about the process how interfacial turbulence changes with time.

Fluid flow around the interfacial turbulence was investigated by following the movement of small dispersed particles in the system and the relation between the interfacial turbulence and the fluid flow is discussed.