Soft tribology of oil-continuous emulsions

M. Douaire*, T. Stephenson, I. T. Norton

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Lubrication behaviour of foodstuff is related to mouthfeel perception and consumer appreciation. Soft tribology of food related products has mainly been investigated with semi-solid food, polymer solutions and water continuous emulsions, and this is the first study aimed at investigating soft tribolocigal behaviour of oil continuous emulsions. All the emulsions considered here exhibit the same trends in terms of lubrication behaviour, where little boundary lubrication is observed at the entrainment speed considered. The volume of dispersed aqueous phase affects overall tribology of oil continuous emulsions via an increase in their dynamic viscosity. Increasing the phase volume leads to an increase in friction in the elastohydrodynamic regime whereas the lubrication in the boundary regime is improved. Elastohydrodynamic lubrication is independent of the aqueous phase composition and the type of emulsifier present at the water-oil interface. These parameters affect boundary lubrication of emulsion systems exhibiting droplet size bigger than the elastohydrodynamic oil film thickness. This is expected to have a significant impact on the design of low fat emulsions that match the lubrication properties of their full fat version.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)24-30
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Food Engineering
Volume139
Early online date2 May 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2014

Keywords

  • Emulsion
  • Lubrication
  • Oral behaviour
  • Tribology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Food Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Soft tribology of oil-continuous emulsions'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this