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Retinal detachment is an acute condition in ophthalmology that needs an immediate surgical management. The treatment requires a replacement of the vitreous with a temporary substitute, usually based on a silicone oil. A certain number of patients experience adverse events during the treatment. It seems this phenomenon is related to the formation of emulsions in the affected eye. These appear macroscopically as heterogeneities resembling small droplets with a patchy occurrence in the vitreous substitute. Their existence represents a major complication that may lead to loss of vision. The heterogeneities are transported to regions of the eye in which they cause irreversible damage. The current state of knowledge describes the phenomenon and recommends certain intervention procedures. Here, specific attention is paid to the chemical engineering aspects of the utilization of silicone oils for the treatment of the retinal detachment. It is very likely that the process of tiny droplet formation leading to the development of emulsions is substantially controlled by the hydrodynamic conditions in the eye. The complexity of this statement is examined in this review text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bubble breakup after collision with a vortex ring was validated as source of breakup parameters for population balance modeling. This system was chosen as a deterministic alternative to the stochastic nature of bubble breakup studies under turbulent flow. The vortex ring was characterized by combining experimental visualization and numerical simulations. Breakup frequency, mean number of daughter bubbles, and its size distribution were obtained by high‐speed camera recording of the collision process. The dependence of breakup parameters on the size of the mother bubble and Weber number was determined. The collision of single bubbles with single vortex rings of defined energy was studied experimentally. The intention was to investigate if the model case of a free rising bubble that interacts with a controlled liquid jet can be used as an alternative source of breakup parameters for population balance modeling of multiphase flows where bubble breakup occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]