A heavy oil-in-water emulsion is heated by a continuous wave laser beam, thus producing an ascending thermoconvective liquid flow. Once at the open free surface the oil particles are directly heated by the incoming laser beam, which gives rise to flocculation and eventually to coalescence. A bright, enlarged image of the heated region is formed in a projection screen using the backscattered light of their own laser beam. The device thus allows direct observation and high speed photographic recording of the flocculation process as a function of the sample temperature, which is monitored by means of a thermographic camera.
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