An experimental study of air-water Taylor flow and mass transfer inside square microchannels

Flow and mass transfer properties under air-water Taylor flow have been investigated in two square microchannels with hydraulic diameters of 400 and 200 μm. Experimental data on Taylor bubble velocity, pressure drop and liquid side volumetric mass transfer coefficient (k_La) have been presented. It was shown that the measured Taylor bubble velocity in square microchannels could be well interpreted based upon an approximate measurement of the liquid film profile therein. Then, the obtained two-phase frictional pressure drop values in both microchannels were found to be significantly higher than the predictions of the correlation proposed by Kreutzer et al. [2005b. Inertial and interfacial effects on pressure drop of Taylor flow in capillaries. A.I.Ch.E. Journal 51, 2428-2440] when the liquid slug was very short, which can be explained by the inadequacy of their correlation to describe the excess pressure drop caused by the strong inner circulation in such short liquid slugs. An appropriate modification has been made to this correlation in order to improve its applicability in microchannels. Finally, the experimental (k_La) values in the microchannel with hydraulic diameter of 400 μm were found to be in poor agreement with those predicted by the existing correlations proposed for capillaries with diameters of several millimeters. The observed deviation was mainly due to the fact that mass transfer experiments in this microchannel actually corresponded to the case of short film contact time and rather poor mixing between the liquid film and the liquid slug, which was not in accordance with mass transfer assumptions associated with these correlations. A new empirical correlation has been proposed to describe mass transfer data in this microchannel.     

CFD modelling of flow and heat transfer in the Taylor flow regime

Transport phenomena in the Taylor flow regime for gas–liquid flows in microchannels have received significant attention in recent years. Whilst the hydrodynamics and mass transfer rate in the Taylor flow regime have been studied extensively using experimental and numerical techniques, studies of heat transfer in Taylor flow have been neglected. In this work, the flow and heat transfer in this regime is studied using the volume of fluid (VOF) and level-set techniques to capture the gas–liquid interface, as implemented in the ANSYS Fluent and TransAT codes, respectively. The results obtained from the two different codes are found to match very closely. Fully-developed flow and heat transfer are studied using the VOF method for a Reynolds number (Re) of 280, Capillary number (Ca) of 0.006 and homogeneous void fraction (β) of 0.51 for constant wall heat flux (H) and constant wall temperature (T) boundary conditions. The Nusselt numbers obtained for both cases are 2.5 times higher than those for liquid-only flow. The effects of the mixture velocity and the homogeneous void fraction on flow and heat transfer are also studied.     

微通道内气-液弹状流动及传质特性研究进展

气-液弹状流,又称Taylor流,是一种以长气泡和液弹交替形式流动的流动形态。微通道内气-液弹状流因其气泡与液弹尺寸分布均一、停留时间分布窄、径向混合强等优点,是一种适于强化气-液反应的理想流型。本文首先介绍了微通道内气泡的生成机理、气泡和液弹长度,以及气泡生成阶段的传质特征。其次系统综述了主通道中弹状流动及传质过程的研究进展,包括气泡形状与液膜厚度、液弹内循环和泄漏流特征、气-液传质系数的测量与预测,以及物理与化学吸收过程中的传质特性等方面内容。最后阐述了当前研究的不足并展望了气-液弹状流的研究方向。     

On the CFD modelling of Taylor flow in microchannels

With the increasing interest in multiphase flow in microchannels and advancement in interface capturing techniques, there have recently been a number of attempts to apply computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to model Taylor flow in microchannels. The liquid film around the Taylor bubble is very thin at low Capillary number (Ca) and requires careful modelling to capture it. In this work, a methodology has been developed to model Taylor flow in microchannel using the ANSYS Fluent software package and a criterion for having a sufficiently fine mesh to capture the film is suggested. The results are shown to be in good agreement with existing correlations and previous valid modelling studies. The role played by the wall contact angle in Taylor bubble simulations is clarified.     

Gas-liquid mass transfer in taylor flow through a capillary

The gas-liquid mass transfer in two-phase flow through a capillary has been measured for water-air, ethanol-air and ethylene glycol-air systems. A semi-theoretical model has been developed and compared with experimental results. and a full computer simulations of the flow pattern and mass transfer using a flow simulation program have been made. The measured values are about 30% less than the calculated values.     

微通道内液-液两相流流型及传质的研究进展

微通道内液-液两相流流动在微化工系统中占有重要的地位,了解微通道内液-液两相流体流动和传质规律对推动其工业化应用有重要作用。本文以微通道内液-液两相流系统为研究对象,简述了不同工况下微通道内液-液两相流流型和混合传质效率,分析了微通道特征、流体性质和流体流动速度等对流型形成和传质效率的影响。指出目前对于微通道内液-液两相流的研究多处于定性研究,定量研究仅针对某一体系展开,所得结果具有一定的局限性。关于微通道内液-液两相流传质研究实验较多而数值模拟方法相对较少,接下来的研究工作中应该考虑建立微通道内液-液两相流基础研究的数据库,通过分析大量的数据获得有效的流型划分准则和相关经验式以此推动微通道内液-液两相流的工业化应用。同时在传质研究过程中应研究开发相应的数值模拟模型,保证实验和数值模拟相结合,提出有效的传质效率评价机制。     

壁面润湿性对微通道内Taylor流动特性的影响

壁面润湿性不仅影响着Taylor气泡的形状,同时对通道内流体流动、相变换热等有着关键的作用。采用VOF模型对T型微通道内气液两相Taylor流动进行三维数值模拟,重点研究了接触角改变对Taylor气泡流体动力学特性的影响。模拟结果与他人实验数据对比基本吻合,验证了模型的有效性。结果表明：随着接触角增大,气泡周围液含量逐渐降低,相界面也由外凸形变为内凹形。壁面越接近润湿（或疏水）状态,气液接触面的曲率就越大;当120°≤θ≤150°时Taylor气泡稳定性变差。当θ≥150°时“拖曳流态”出现,分析指出在大接触角下气体更易贴附壁面导致接触区内流场发生变化,形成的涡流减弱了水对气相的水平剪切作用,进而引起流型转变。接触角对通道内压力有着重要影响,通道中心轴向压力曲线以θ=90°为过渡,润湿状态下呈凸函数递减且p _G>p _L,疏水状态下气液进口处的压力分配改变,曲线趋势相反。     

垂直管内弹状气泡上升时的壁面传质

Wall-liquid mass transfer for Taylor bubbles rising through liquid column in vertical tubes is an important and fundamental topic in industrial processes.In this work,the characteristics of wall-liquid mass transfer for this special case of slug flow were studied experimentally by limiting diffusion current technique (LDCT). Based on the experimental results and the analysis of hydrodynamic mechanisms,it was proposed that four different zones exist,i.e.the laminar falling film zone,the turbulent falling film zone,the wake region and the remaining liquid slug zone.The corresponding correlations for all these zones were developed.     

Direct numerical simulations of mass transfer in square microchannels for liquid-liquid slug flow

Microreactors for the development of liquid-liquid processes are promising technologies since they are supposed to offer an enhancement of mass transfer compared to conventional devices due to the increase in the surface/volume ratio. But impact of the laminar flow should be negative and the effect is still to be evaluated. The present work focuses on the study of mass transfer in microchannels by means of 2D direct numerical simulations. We investigated liquid-liquid slug flow systems in square channel of depth. The droplet velocity ranges from 0.0015-0.25 m/s and the ratio between the channel depth and the droplet length varies between 0.4 and 11.2. Droplet side volumetric mass transfer coefficients were identified from concentration field computations and the evolution of these coefficients as a function of the flow parameters and the channel size is discussed. This study reveals that mass transfer is strongly influenced by the flow structure inside the droplet. Moreover, it shows that the confinement of the droplets due to the channel size leads to an enhancement of mass transfer compared to cases where the droplets are not constrained by the walls.     

微通道中钒的液-液流型和萃取传质动力学研究

采用伯胺N1923萃取剂在微通道中研究V(V)的液-液流型和萃取传质动力学,以15vol% N1923作为连续相、钒氧酸根水溶液作为分散相,研究不同流速下两不混溶相的流型变化规律及两相停留时间和微通道管径作为流速的函数对传质的影响。随两相流速增大,段塞流长度和比界面面积基本不变,且两相流体由Raydrop微通道流入外接毛细管微通道时由于微通道的扩张会改变两相流动方式,使同一实验条件下在微通道中同时出现多种流型,与此同时两相流速和总体积传质系数(kLa)呈正相关,表明流型在本研究体系中对传质的影响可忽略。在相同管径通道内,停留时间与总体积传质系数呈负相关,表明在两相接触通道入口处发生了显著传质。在相同的两相混合速度和相比下,254 μm的管径传质效果是750 μm的9倍,表明小管径内传质效果更加,循环强度更大。最后将实验总体积传质系数结果与总体积传质系数的经验式进行了关联,有望为实现将微通道放大的绿色冶金技术提供理论基础。     

微通道内气-液传质研究

以CO₂-H₂O为模型体系，实验考察了当量直径为667 μm的单通道和16个并行通道内的气-液传质行为.实验发现，液体表观速度增加，单通道内液侧体积传质系数明显提高;同一液体表观速度下，液侧体积传质系数随气体表观速度增加而增加;在实验数据基础上关联了液侧体积传质系数与气-液两相流参数间的关系.微通道内的液侧体积传质系数较常规尺度气-液接触设备至少高1～2个数量级.并讨论了并行微通道内气-液两相流分配特性对整体传质性能的影响，表明合理设计气、液流动分布结构，可保证微通道内优异的传质特性.     

CFD simulations of wall mass transfer for Taylor flow in circular capillaries

Computational fluid dynamics is used to investigate the mass transfer from the liquid phase to the channel wall for Taylor flow of bubbles rising in circular capillaries. The separate influences of the Taylor bubble rise velocity, unit cell length, gas holdup, and liquid diffusivity on mass transfer were investigated for capillaries of 1.5, 2 and 3 mm diameter. A correlation is proposed for estimation of the wall mass transfer coefficient and this correlation has been tested against published experimental data.     

Gas–liquid mass transfer of aqueous Taylor flow in monoliths

The gas–liquid mass transfer of a monolith operating in the Taylor flow regime is presented. Mass transfer measurements are compared with a literature model derived for single capillaries. The comparison resulted in a prediction of the unit cell length (gasbubble+liquidslug). Independent measurements of the liquid slug length showed that the predicted unit cell length is close to the measured ones. This leads to the conclusion that mass transfer models for single capillaries may indeed be used for monoliths. Additionally, it is shown that the liquid slug length may also be estimated from pressure drop measurements.     

Modeling slug flow and mass transfer in inclined pipes

An experimental and numerical study of the gas projectile mass transfer when moving in an inclined pipe has been carried out. The mathematical model is based on the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method and verified by experimental data. The dependence of the velocity of the gas projectile motion and effective dimensionless mass transfer coefficient on the pipe inclination angle has been found. The simulated and calculated from experimental data bubble profiles have been compared.     

Heat transfer in well-characterised Taylor flow

The flow and heat transfer behaviours of gas–liquid, non-boiling, Taylor flow in the vertical upward direction were studied experimentally using a 2.00 mm diameter channel. Nitrogen and water at atmospheric pressure were employed as the working fluids. Three circular T-junction mixers with different diameters were used to generate gas bubbles and liquid slugs of different lengths (1–220d) with controlled mixture velocities (0.11<U_TP<0.53 m s^?1, 200<Re_TP<1100) and homogeneous void fractions (0.03<β<0.90). High-speed visualization of adiabatic flow and heat transfer rate determination for constant wall heat flux conditions were performed. The heat transfer enhancement brought about by Taylor flow is found to be larger with shorter slugs and higher mixture velocities. An enhancement up to 3.2-fold over the liquid-only flow was observed. Based on the experimental data, a correlation between the apparent slug Nusselt number (Nu_L?) with a Graetz number, where the characteristic length is that of the slug, is proposed.     

Effect of surface properties on the flow characteristics and mass transfer performance in microchannels

In this work, the influence of surface properties on the flow characteristics and mass transfer performance of two immiscible liquids are investigated in the opposed and cross-flow configuration microchannels, as the volumetric flux ratio is far <1. For visually identifying flow patterns in transparent PMMA microchannels, dyed de-ionized water and kerosene are selected as test fluids. To investigate the mass transfer characteristics in stainless steel microchannels, water–succinic acid–n-butanol is chosen as a typical system. Reynolds number varied between 11 and 275. Only at low Re_M numbers, the dispersed phase flow pattern can occur in the opposed T-shaped PMMA microchannel before surface modification. At higher Re_M numbers, only the continuous phase flow pattern (parallel flow) is observed before and after surface modification. Moreover, the fluctuation amplitude after surface modification is larger than before surface modification at the opposed T-junction. To eliminate the effects of the sampling intervals and separation process of oil–water two phases on mass transfer performance, one new testing method is established by manufacturing the novel oil–water separator based on the principle of siphon. For the conditions applied during the study, the overall volumetric mean mass transfer coefficients range from 0.19 to 11.96 s^?1, which are one or three orders of magnitude higher than those in typical conventional large scaled contactors.