Post-doctorate: Dispersion of particles induced by microdroplet impact on a liquid film
TotalEnegies owns several deep-sea oil wells connected to underwater ducts in cold environment. The circulating fluid contains paraffin, whose solidification temperature is higher than the fluid temperature but can be smaller than the wall duct temperature. Thus, in specific condition, a solid deposit can grow at the duct wall by solidification of the paraffin. It is important to predict the development of such solid deposits as they can reduce the apparent section of the duct. The model used by TotalEnergies is strongly dependent on the paraffin flux to the duct wall which is not well understood leading to inaccurate predictions.
In the duct, the flow pattern corresponds to an annular film that is sheared by a high-velocity gas flow that entrains small oil droplets. These droplets, that contain paraffin crystals, eventually impact the annular liquid film inducing dispersion of the paraffin crystals. This project aims to study the consequence of such an impact on the paraffin distribution inside the oil annular film.
Required profile:
In this project, we seek for a highly motivated candidate with a strong background in fluid mechanics and in the associated experimental techniques (High speed imaging, image processing…). The post-doctorate will have to:
- Participate in the building and characterization of the experimental setup
- Perform the experimental campaigns
- Analyze and model the results
Interested candidates have to contact Julien Sebilleau , Frédéric Risso and Thierry Ondarçuhu .
