U.S.-France Cooperative Research: Characterization of Surfactant Mass Transfer Kinetics and their Impact on Confined Multi-Phase Flows

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This three-year award supports U.S.-France cooperative research in chemical systems involving Kathleen Stebe of Johns Hopkins University, Dominique Langevin of the Ecole Normale Superieure (Paris) and Dominique Barthes-Biesel of Compiegne University of Technology. The investigators will study the effects of surfactant adsorption on fluid particle motions within the context of new applications including: (1) the flow of foams in porous media; (2) thermocapillary migration of bubbles and drops in microgravity fluids processing; and (3) kinetic rate constants for adsorption and desorption of surfactant molecules. Surfactant adsorption and its effects may be important for enhanced oil recovery. The underlying theory is that detergent foams could be used to control the mobility of a displacing fluid in tertiary oil recovery and thereby improve its control for removing oil from rock pores. The U.S. investigator has extensive experience in both theory and experiments in interfacial mechanics, specifically focusing on surfactant related interfacial phenomena. This is complemented by the French investigators' expertise in soft matter physics (surfactants and polymers) and two phase flows. The project will benefit from the Paris group's unique experimental apparatus and light scattering technique for analyzing capillary action at interfaces. A related experiment on gas bubbles and surfactant adsorption will be conducted by the group in Compiegne.