Cette thèse porte sur l'utilisation de champs électriques pour faciliter l'élimination de l'eau coproduite avec le pétrole brut, sous la forme d'émulsions stables, lors des étapes d'extraction et de dessalement. Ce procédé, connu sous le nom d'électrocoalescence, s'appuie sur la capacité qu'ont les forces électrostatiques à promouvoir l'attraction et la coalescence de gouttelettes d'eau proches afin d'en augmenter la taille et ainsi d'en accélérer la sédimentation par gravité. Bien que les premières observations expérimentales datent déjà d'un siècle, de nombreuses zones d'ombres subsistent, notamment en ce qui concerne l'optimisation de l'efficacité des électrocoalesceurs de dernière génération. Dans ce contexte, une démarche, combinant simulation numérique multi-physique et expérimentation, a été mise en place pour étudier les phénomènes de mouvement, de déformation et d'instabilité d'interfaces eau-huile induit par la présence d'un champ électrique. La contribution la plus marquante concerne la modélisation et l'analyse de l'effet des forces électrostatiques sur le mécanisme d'amincissement du film d'huile séparant les gouttes. Les résultats numériques mettent en évidence la singularité du problème et l'inadaptabilité des modèles théoriques de lubrification classiquement adoptés pour représenter la coalescence dans les écoulements diphasiques. Une nouvelle expression asymptotique pour le calcul du temps de drainage entre les gouttelettes de l'émulsion est proposée et utilisée pour déduire un critère prédisant la probabilité d'électrocoalescence lors d'une collision dans un écoulement cisaillé. En parallèle, un dispositif sophistiqué, permettant de reproduire expérimentalement le phénomène et d'améliorer la représentativité du critère, a été construit. Enfin, en réponse à un point bloquant décelé lors de la phase de conception de ce dernier, une technique innovante d'injection à la demande de gouttes conductrices non chargées dans un liquide visqueux isolant, utilisant des impulsions électrostatiques, a été développé. / The present thesis deals with the electrostatically assisted removal of water coproduced with crude oil in the form of stable emulsions during recovery and desalting operations. This process, referred to as electrocoalescence, exploits the ability of electric forces to promote attraction and merging of adjacent water droplets to increase their size and related natural rate of sedimentation under gravity. Still, even one century after the first experimental observations, a lot of gray areas remain, particularly on the optimization of efficiency in state-of-the-art separators. To address this question, an approach combining multi-physics simulation and experiments has been used to investigate the phenomena of motion, deformation and instability of electrically influenced water-oil (droplets) interfaces. The main contribution concerns the modeling and analysis of the mechanism of oil film thinning between droplets approaching under the effect of electrostatic forces. Results from simulations highlight the strong singularity of the present problem and the inadequacy of existing theoretical lubrication models usually employed to represent coalescence events in two phase flows. For the small emulsified droplets, a new asymptotic expression for the drainage time is obtained and allows to deduce a criterion predicting the probability of electrocoalescence resulting from a shear flow induced collision. In parallel, a sophisticated setup, enabling to experimentally investigate the phenomenon and to improve the criterion relevance with regards to the actual processing conditions, has been assembled. At last and as an answer to an otherwise unfulfilled requirement defined in the design of the latter, an innovative actuation technique for the synchronous on-demand injection of two charge free conductive droplets in an insulating viscous liquid, relying on the application of a high electric field pulse, has been implemented.

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<p>Microdroplets have large and varied areas of application ranging from document printing to complex lab-on-chip devices. Lab-on-chip systems often require precise volume control as well as high throughput operations. Microdroplets fulfill these requirements and have become a staple in these devices. The work presented in this thesis involves the design and characterization of two individual devices capable of droplet generation utilizing flow focusing and electrogeneration methods.</p> <p>The first design involved the generation of gel microdroplets utilizing the flow focusing technique. This device proved to be robust and reliable producing large volumes of uniformly mixed droplets. Long term operation of this device was analyzed and determined to be a feasible route for the manufacture of large quantities of droplets. The device was operated for over 30 hours creating gel droplets ranging from 40-200 μm in diameter with acceptable polydispersities for use in drug release studies.</p> <p>The second device involved the design and characterization of a system for the electrogeneration of microdroplets. This novel device involved the injection of droplets via high voltage and high frequency signals into a cross-flow of oil. The droplet generation was characterized and different droplet generation modes were observed. With the careful selection of parameters ideal conditions were obtained to generate monodisperse droplets of sizes ranging from under 5 to over 100 μm in a highly repeatable manner.</p> <p>To conclude, two separate microfluidic droplet generation devices operating in distinct modes were designed and analyzed. These devices are robust, reliable, and flexible with some applications being tested.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)