Contact Interaction of Two Oil Lenses Floating on Surface of Deionized Water.

Droplets on the surface of liquid play an important role in a variety of areas, including the petroleum industry, pollution control, and environmental processes. In this work, we study the contact interaction between two floating oil lenses on the surface of immiscible water. The contact interaction between the two floating oil lenses can be divided into three different regimes: (a) the collision involving deformation for low-viscous oils, (b) the direct coalescence for high-viscous oils, and (c) the coexistence (noncoalescence) of oil lenses at relatively high temperatures. The temperature dependence of the coalescence time for the coalescence of two silicone-oil lenses of large viscosities follows the Arrhenius equation.