How does centrifuge machine separate water particles from oil?
In: Engineering
Water is denser than most oils (maybe all oils?? not sure), so if you put any acceleration on a water/oil mixture, the two liquids will respond different amounts and end up separating.
Gravity alone does this; if you just let a water/oil mixture sit, the oil will float to the top/the water will sink to the bottom. In weaker gravity this separation would still happen, but slower, and in stronger gravity the separation still happens, but faster.
A centrifuge creates “artificial gravity”, aka centrifugal acceleration, toward the outside of the spinning cylinder and it can be way, way stronger than Earth’s gravity so it can separate liquids a lot faster. The water ends up on the outside of the cylinder, with the oil on the inside, and if you place valves or little holes in the cylinder you can let one liquid out while the other stays trapped inside.
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