Gas/liquid/liquid three‐phase flow patterns and bubble/droplet size laws in a double T‐junction microchannel

The double T‐junction microchannel is a classical microstructured chemical device used to generate gas/liquid/liquid three‐phase microflows. An experimental study that focused on the three‐phase flow phenomena and bubble/droplet generation rules in a double T‐junction microchannel was introduced. Based on the published knowledge of gas/liquid and liquid/liquid two‐phase microflows, new flow patterns were carefully defined: bubble cutting flow, spontaneous break‐up and bubble cutting coupling flow, and bubble/droplet alternate break‐up flow. According to the classical correlations of bubble and droplet volumes and their generation frequency ratio, the operating criteria for creating different three‐phase flow patterns were established and a model for the dimensionless average bubble and droplet volumes in the three‐phase microflows was developed. These various three‐phase microflows have great application potential in material science and flow chemistry synthesis. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 1722–1734, 2015     

Effect of Viscosity on the Hydrodynamics of Liquid Processes in Microchannels

The hydrodynamics of single‐phase liquid flow with relatively high fluid viscosities in a microchannel was investigated experimentally. The results showed that the conventional theory could predict the single‐phase flow with high fluid viscosities in microchannels. Furthermore, the effect of viscosity on the slug flow of two immiscible liquid phases in a microchannel was studied with high‐speed imaging techniques. It was found that a higher dispersed‐phase viscosity quickened the flow pattern transition from slug flow to parallel flow and resulted in smaller slugs. A modified capillary number representing the mutual effects of the viscosities of the continuous phase and the dispersed phase was proposed for predicting the slug sizes in microchannels.     

Characterization of liquid‐liquid flows in horizontal pipes

Diverse flow regimes have been encountered in liquid‐liquid flows. Some degree of consistency in the observed flow patterns is shown in reported studies, while inconsistency exits when physical properties of the two phases concerned are wide enough. An attempt was made in this study to investigate the mechanisms behind flow patterns of liquid‐liquid flows in horizontal pipes. A literature review on flow patterns of liquid‐liquid flows in horizontal pipes was conducted. The ratio of the gravitational force to viscous force was proposed to characterize liquid‐liquid flows in horizontal pipes into gravitational force dominant, viscous force dominant, and gravitational force and viscous force comparable flow featured with different basic flow regimes. Comparisons of the proposed characterization criterion with the literature data show good agreement. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 1132–1143, 2017     

Phase separation of gas–liquid two‐phase stratified and plug flows in multitube T‐junction separators

Using air and water as the working fluids, phase separation phenomena for stratified and plug flows at inlet were investigated experimentally, at a simple T‐junction and specifically designed multitube T‐junction separators with two or three layers. The results show that for these two flow patterns the separation efficiency of the two phases for any multitube T‐junction separator is much higher than that of the simple T‐junction. Increasing the number of connecting tubes in the multitube T‐junction separator can increase the separation efficiency. Generally, for stratified flow, complete separation of the two phases can be achieved by the two‐layer multitube T‐junction separator with five or more connecting tubes and by the three‐layer separator; increasing the gas flow rate, the liquid flow rate, or the mixture velocity under plug flow is detrimental to phase separation with a drop in peak separation efficiency. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 2285–2292, 2017     

Flow distribution and mass transfer in a parallel microchannel contactor integrated with constructal distributors

Flow distribution and mass transfer characteristics during CO₂‐water flow through a parallel microchannel contactor integrated with two constructal distributors have been investigated numerically and experimentally. Each distributor comprises a dichotomic tree structure that feeds 16 microchannels with hydraulic diameters of 667 μm. It was found that constructal distributors could ensure a nearly uniform gas–liquid distribution at high gas flow rates where the ideal flow pattern was slug‐annular flow. Nevertheless, at small gas flow rates where the ideal flow pattern was slug flow, a significant flow maldistribution occurred primarily due to the lack of large pressure barrier inside each distributor, indicating that dynamic pressure fluctuation in parallel microchannels greatly disturbed an otherwise good flow distribution therein. It was further shown that the present parallel microchannel contactor could realize the desired mass transfer performance previously achieved in one single microchannel under relatively wide operational ranges due to the integration of constructal distributors. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010     

Low Inclination Oil‐water Flows

Two‐phase liquid flows at +5° inclination from the horizontal were studied experimentally for mixture velocities between 0.7 and 2.5 m/s and input oil fractions between 10% and 90%. The results were compared with a two‐fluid model that includes entrainment. The investigations were performed in a 38‐mm ID stainless steel test section, with water and oil as test fluids. Dual continuous flow (both phases remain continuous with inter‐dispersion) prevailed, while the two‐phase pressure gradient was found lower than the single‐phase oil or water. At low mixture velocities the velocity ratio increased with oil fraction while at high ones it decreased. Compared to horizontal flow, water holdup was higher and frictional pressure gradient lower.     

Trajectory modeling of gas–liquid flow in microchannels with stochastic differential equation and optical measurement

The numbering‐up of microchannel reactors definitely faces great challenge in uniformly distributing fluid flow in every channel, especially for multiphase systems. A model of stochastic differential equations (SDEs) is proposed based on the experimental data recorded by a long‐term optical measurement to well quantify the stochastic trajectories of gas bubbles and liquid slugs in parallel microchannels interconnected with two dichotomic distributors. The expectation and variance of each subflow rate are derived explicitly from the SDEs associated with the Fokker–Planck equation and solved numerically. A bifurcation in the trajectory is found using the original model, then a modification on interactions of feedback and crosstalk is introduced, the evolutions of subflow rates calculated by the modified model match well with experimental results. The established methodology is helpful for characterizing the flow uniformity and numbering‐up the microchannel reactors of multiphase system. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 4028–4034, 2015     

Capillary Filling Flows inside Patterned‐Surface Microchannels

Capillary flows inside microchannels with patterned‐surfaces are investigated theoretically and numerically. The surface energy method is used to derive an equivalent contact angle (ECA) model for small capillary number flows. The SIMPLE algorithm using a volume of fluid (VOF) method is adopted to investigate the flows in those microchannels. The flow characteristics such as the liquid front shapes and the evolution of the liquid lengths are obtained. The numerical results reveal that capillary flows in a patterned‐surface microchannel still follow the traditional capillary theories. The ECA model is confirmed by the numerical results. It indicates that the capillary flows inside the patterned‐surface microchannels can be estimated by means of the homogeneous‐surface microchannels with the equivalent contact angle. The ECA model provides a good criterion for the total wettability of a patterned‐surface microchannel, as well.     

Improved Design of Microchannel Plate Geometry for Uniform Flow Distribution

The need to achieve high throughput in micro devices leads to high velocities through the microchannels leading to high pressure drops. Due to the nature of the microchannel plate geometry, the highest pressure drop may get localized to cause uneven flows along the microchannels leading to performance reduction. To maintain uniform flow distribution even under high throughput conditions, a two‐dimensional model has been constructed to study the flow distribution along the microchannels for various plate geometries of a micro heat exchanger. A novel micro heat exchanger configuration to achieve uniform flow distribution under all operating conditions has been proposed, modelled and tested. From the results obtained, it can be seen that the plate geometry with inlet and outlet valves inline with the microchannels along with two inlets and four outlets (for possible counter‐current heat exchange operation) provides uniform flow distribution under a wide range of flow conditions.     

周期性扩缩微通道内气液两相流型及其演变特性

以空气和水为实验工质,利用IDT高速摄像仪和Nikon生物显微镜组成的可视化系统对水平放置的PDMS周期性扩缩微通道内的气液两相流型及其演变特性进行实验研究。观察到的主要流型为间歇流和分离流。对于间歇流,气体以离散形式分布在液相中或者是液体以分散形式分布在气相中,而且气相分散跟液相分散交替存在。对于分离流,气体主要沿气体进口壁侧流动,液体主要沿液体进口壁侧流动。两相中存在明显的分界面,沿流动方向界面产生波动。通过改变气液两相表观流速,得到气液两相流型分布,进而提出间歇流与分离流流型转换的准则关系式。结果表明,同一液相表观流速下,三角凹穴型微通道间歇流向分离流转变所需的气相表观流速略小于扇形凹穴微通道。     

Modeling of Slug Velocity and Pressure Drop in Gas‐Liquid‐Liquid Slug Flow

Gas‐liquid‐liquid slug flow in a capillary reactor is a promising new concept that allows one to incorporate gas‐liquid reaction, liquid‐liquid extraction, and facile catalyst separation in a single unit. In order to assess the performance of a gas‐liquid‐liquid slug flow reactor, it is necessary to predict the slug velocity and pressure drop to ascertain residence times and reaction rates. New empirical models for velocity and pressure drop were developed based on existing models for two‐phase gas‐liquid and liquid‐liquid slug flows, and these were validated experimentally.     

Liquid‐liquid two‐phase flow patterns in a new helical microchannel device

Flow patterns of liquid‐liquid two‐phase fluids in a new helical microchannel device were presented in this paper. Three conventional systems were considered: kerosene‐water, n‐butyl acetate‐water, and butanol‐water. Six different flow patterns, slug flow, continuous parallel flow, discontinuous deformation parallel flow, discontinuous deformation parallel‐droplet flow, droplet‐slug flow, and filiform‐droplet flow, were observed. The influence of interfacial tension, microchannel structure, and rotation rate on two‐phase flow patterns were studied, and a universal flow pattern map was presented and discussed. The systems without mass transfer (0.1 g/g (10 %) tri‐n‐butyl phosphate (TBP)‐water, 0.2 g/g (20 %) TBP‐water, and 0.8 g/g (80 %) TBP‐water) and the system with mass transfer (0.8 g/g (80 %) TBP‐0.62 g/g (62 %) H₃PO₄) were used to verify the validity of the proposed universal flow pattern map in predicting flow patterns. The results showed that the former compared with the latter can be predicted more accurately by the universal flow pattern map.     

Hydrodynamic Model for Horizontal Two‐phase Flow Through Porous Media

A unidirectional, two‐fluid model based on the volume‐average mass and momentum balance equations was developed for the prediction of two‐phase pressure drop and external liquid hold‐up in horizontally positioned packed beds experiencing stratified, annular and dispersed bubble flow regimes. The so‐called slit model drag force closures were used for the stratified and annular flow regimes. In the case of dispersed bubble flow regime, the liquid‐solid interaction force was formulated on the basis of the Kozeny‐Carman equation by taking into account the presence of bubbles in reducing the available volume for the flowing liquid. The gas‐liquid interaction force was evaluated by using the respective solutions of drag coefficient for an isolated bubble in viscous and turbulent flows. The proposed drag force expressions for the different flow patterns occurring in the bed associated with the two‐fluid model resulted in a predictive method requiring no adjustable parameter to describe the hydrodynamics for horizontal two‐phase flow in packed beds.     

3‐D numerical simulations on flow and mixing behaviors in gas–liquid–solid microchannels

Three‐dimensional (3‐D) gas‐liquid–solid flow and mixing behaviors in microchannels were simulated by coupled volume of fluid and discrete phase method and simulations were validated against observations. The detachment time and length of gas slug are shortened in liquid–solid flow, compared with those in liquid flow due to higher superficial viscosity of liquid–solid mixture, which will move the bubble formation toward the dripping regime. Solid particles mainly distribute in liquid slug and particle flow shows obvious periodicity. With the increase of contact angle of the inner wall, gas slug (0–50°), stratified (77–120°), and liquid drop (160°) flows are observed. The residence time distributions of solid and liquid phases are similar because particles behave as tracers. The backmixing of solid and liquid phases in liquid drop flow is the weakest among the three flow patterns, and the backmixing of gas phase in slug flow is weaker than that in both stratified and liquid drop flows. The results can provide a theoretical basis for the design of microreactors. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 1934–1951, 2013     

Three‐dimensional simulations of gas‐liquid cocurrent downflow in vertical,inclined, and oscillating packed beds

The hydrodynamic behavior of gas‐liquid downflow in vertical, inclined, and oscillating packed beds related to offshore floating applications was analyzed by means of three‐dimensional unsteady‐state two‐fluid simulations. Angular oscillations of the column between two angled symmetrical positions and between vertical and inclined position were considered while bed non‐uniformity was described using radial porosity distributions. For vertical and slightly inclined columns, two‐phase flow was concentrated in the core area of the bed. However, the two‐phase flow was predicted to deviate significantly from axial symmetry at higher inclinations with prominent liquid accumulation in the bottommost reactor cross‐sectional area. Oscillating packed beds unveiled complex reverse secondary flows radially and circumferentially resulting in oscillatory patterns of liquid holdup and pressure drop whose amplitude and propagation frequency were affected by column inclination angle and travel time between vertical and angled positions. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 916–927, 2016     

Investigating the liquid film characteristics of gas–liquid swirling flow using ultrasound doppler velocimetry

A novel gas–liquid two‐phase flow metering method was proposed. A spiral vane mounted in the inner pipe was used to transform inlet flow patterns into gas–liquid swirling annular flow. The thickness and velocity profile of liquid film were measured by ultrasound Doppler velocimetry. The liquid flow rates were obtained by integrating of velocity profile during the liquid film zone. Experiments were carried out in an air–water two‐phase flow loop and an ultrasonic transducer was installed under the bottom of the test section with the Doppler angle of 70°. The flow patterns included stratified wavy, annular, and slug flows. Compared with non‐swirling flow, the liquid film thickness at the bottom reduces greatly. The measurement accuracy of liquid flow rate was independent of inlet flow patterns, gas and liquid velocities. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 2348–2357, 2017     

两种烧结通道的沸腾传热和阻力特性对比

多孔材料对沸腾换热的强化是能源化工领域的重要主题。本文针对两种不同的烧结结构——并联微通道和扁平通道（仅有烧结底层）,以去离子水为工质,进行了过冷流动沸腾换热实验对比研究。研究发现：并联微通道的传热系数和临界热流密度远高于扁平通道,这和并联微通道优异的毛细供液性能相关。底厚粒径比对并联微通道的沸腾换热性能影响较大,过大的底厚粒径比会造成换热性能的下降。质量通量对小粒径样品的沸腾曲线和换热性能均影响较大,对大粒径（d=120μm）样品的沸腾曲线影响较小。烧结并联微通道的平均压降大于扁平通道。相同底厚下,平均压降随着微通道粒径的增大而增大。可视化观察表明：两种通道在中高热流密度流型不同,其主要相变机制均为薄液膜蒸发模式。     

Laminar Drag Reduction in Hydrophobic Microchannels

The apparent slip effects of laminar water flow in smooth hydrophobic microchannels and patterned hydrophobic microchannels were investigated. A series of experiments were performed to demonstrate the drag reductions for laminar water flow in hydrophobic microchannels. These microchannels were fabricated from silicon wafers using photolithography and were coated with hydrophobic octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS). To generate a larger drag reduction, the patterned hydrophobic microchannels were fabricated to allow the liquid to flow over a region of trapped air in the cavity between the microridges. With the geometrical dimensions used, pressure drop reductions ranging from 10 to 30 % were found in the smooth microchannels and patterned microchannels. The pressure drop reduction was shown to increase with increasing microridge spacing and decreasing microchannel width. Using micro‐particle image velocimetry (PIV), we measured an apparent slip velocity at the wall of approximately 8 % of the centerline velocity, yielding a slip length of approximately 2 μm in the smooth hydrophobic microchannel. Theoretically, the analytical solution derived for three‐dimensional flow in a rectangular duct is presented to predict the slip velocity and slip length at the wall based on the pressure drop measurement. These results are in agreement with the experimental data obtained using micro‐PIV.     

Bubble splitting under gas–liquid–liquid three‐phase flow in a double T‐junction microchannel

Gas–aqueous liquid–oil three‐phase flow was generated in a microchannel with a double T‐junction. Under the squeezing of the dispersed aqueous phase at the second T‐junction (T2), the splitting of bubbles generated from the first T‐junction (T1) was investigated. During the bubble splitting process, the upstream gas–oil two‐phase flow and the aqueous phase flow at T2 fluctuate in opposite phases, resulting in either independent or synchronous relationship between the instantaneous downstream and upstream bubble velocities depending on the operating conditions. Compared with two‐phase flow, the modified capillary number and the ratio of the upstream velocity to the aqueous phase velocity were introduced to predict the bubble breakup time. The critical bubble breakup length and size laws of daughter bubbles/slugs were thereby proposed. These results provide an important guideline for designing microchannel structures for a precise manipulation of gas–liquid–liquid three‐phase flow which finds potential applications among others in chemical synthesis. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 376–388, 2018     

High‐throughput microporous tube‐in‐tube microreactor as novel gas–liquid contactor: Mass transfer study

High‐throughput microporous tube‐in‐tube microchannel reactor (MTMCR) was first designed and developed as a novel gas–liquid contactor. Experimentally measured k_Lα in MTMCR is at least one or two orders of magnitude higher than those in the conventional gas–liquid contactors. A high throughput of 500 L/h for gas and 43.31 L/h for liquid is over 60 times higher than that of T‐type microchannel. An increase of the gas or liquid flow rate, as well as a reduction of the micropore size and annular channel width of MTMCR, could greatly intensify the gas–liquid mass transfer. The interfacial area, α, in MTMCR was measured to be as high as 2.2 × 10⁵ m²/m³, which is much higher than those of microchannels (3400–9000 m²/m³) and traditional contactors (50–2050 m²/m³). The artificial neural network model was proposed for predicting α, revealing only an average absolute relative error of <5%. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011