Department of Mechanical Engineering

Professor On Shun Pak received a research award of $110,000 from the American Chemical Society's Petroleum Research Fund, which supports fundamental research related to petroleum or fossil fuels. This award will support Pak’s research on the dynamics of emulsion drops under electric fields, laying the foundation for improving the demulsification of oilfield emulsions. The demulsification process separates water from oilfield emulsions, which is critical in the petroleum field to avoid damages to processing facilities and to reduce transportation costs. Pak will combine theoretical modeling and computer simulations to better understand these complex fluid dynamics phenomena.