ABSTRACT
Highly concentrated emulsions are an interesting class of emulsions characterized by an internal phase volume fraction exceeding 0.74, the critical value of the most compact arrangement of uniform, undistorted spherical droplets [1,2]. Consequently, their structure consists of deformed (polyhedral) and/or polydisperse droplets separated by a thin film of continuous phase, a structure resembling gas-liquid foams, as shown in Figure 6.1. They are high-internal-phase (HIPE) emulsions which are also referred to in the literature as gel emulsions [3-6], hydrocarbon gels [7], biliquid foams [8], etc. In this text they will be referred to as highly concentrated emulsions.
