Electrohydrodynamics of drops with complex interfaces

The effective removal of water from oilfield emulsions is crucial in the petroleum industry. The response of emulsion drops to electric fields has been exploited to accelerate the demulsification process. While previous studies have demonstrated different profound dynamics emulsion drops can exhibit under electric fields, many of them assumed the drop interface to be clean. In more realistic situations, crude oil-water interfaces are populated with absorbed crude oil components such as asphaltenes and resins. These complex interfaces hence display interfacial rheological behaviors that may not be captured by a single value of interfacial tension. In this talk, we report our progress in examining the electrohydrodynamic response of drops with more complex interfaces.