Emulsion Stability Simulations (ESS) are used to estimate the coalescence time of one drop of hexadecane pressed by buoyancy against a planar water/hexadecane interface. In the present simulations the homophase is represented by a big drop of oil at least 500 times larger than the approaching drop (1 μm to 10 μm). Both deformable and non-deformable drops are considered along with six different diffusion tensors. In each case van der Waals, electrostatic, steric and buoyancy forces are taken

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... account. The coalescence times are estimated as the average of 1000 random walks. It is found that the repulsive potential barrier has a significant influence in the results. The experimental data can only be reproduced assuming negligible repulsive barriers, as well as non-deformable drops that move with a combination of Stokes and Taylor tensors as they approach the interface.