Water-Silicone Oil Two-Phase Flow Hydrodynamics in a Square Glass Microchannel

Author(s):  
Zan Wu ◽  
Astrid Svensson ◽  
Jin-yuan Qian ◽  
Bengt Sunden

This work visualized water-silicone oil two-phase flow patterns both at the inlet cross-junction and in the main square microchannel with a channel width of 400 μm. Tubing/threading, dripping and jetting were identified at the inlet junction while annular, slug and droplet flows were categorized in the main microchannel at 50 mm downstream of the junction. Flow patterns were represented in terms of superficial velocities and dimensionless numbers. Compared to water-silicone oil flow, addition of surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in water, with a dilute SDS concentration of 1000 ppm, narrows the dripping regime and widens the jetting regime at the inlet junction, while narrows the slug flow regime and widens the droplet flow regime in the main microchannel. A decrease in dynamic interfacial tension due to SDS addition is supposed to be the reason for such a flow pattern modification. Besides, for slug flow, the slug length can be scaled as a power law of the flow rate ratio and the Capillary number of the organic phase. The slug velocity is linearly dependent on the bulk average velocity for both cases with and without SDS addition.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faraj Ben Rajeb ◽  
Syed Imtiaz ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Amer Aborig ◽  
Mohamed M. Awad ◽  
...  

Abstract Slug flow is one of the most common flow patterns in non-Newtonian two-phase flow in pipes. It is a very common occurrence in gas-liquid two-phase flow in the pipe. Usually, it is an unfavorable flow pattern due to its unsteady nature, intermittency as well as high pressure drop. The differences between slug flow and elongated bubble flow are not clear because usually these two types of flow combined under one flow category. In general, these two-phase flow regimes are commonly defined as intermittent flow. In the present study, pressure gradient, and wave behavior in slug flow have been investigated depending on experimental work. In addition, void fraction has been estimated regarding available superficial liquid and gas velocities. The experimental records of superficial velocities of gas and liquid for slug flow and other flow patterns is used to create flow regime map for the gas non-Newtonian flow system. The effect of investigated flow regime velocities for non-Newtonian/gas flow on pressure drop and void fraction is reported. Pressure drop has been discovered to be reduced in slug flow more than other flow patterns due to high shear thinning behavior.


1994 ◽  
Vol 59 (12) ◽  
pp. 2595-2603
Author(s):  
Lothar Ebner ◽  
Marie Fialová

Two regions of instabilities in horizontal two-phase flow were detected. The first was found in the transition from slug to annular flow, the second between stratified and slug flow. The existence of oscillations between the slug and annular flows can explain the differences in the limitation of the slug flow in flow regime maps proposed by different authors. Coexistence of these two regimes is similar to bistable behaviour of some differential equation solutions.


Author(s):  
Hideo Ide ◽  
Kentaro Satonaka ◽  
Tohru Fukano

Experiments were performed to obtain, analyze and clarify the mean void fraction, the mean liquid holdup, and the liquid slug velocity and the air-water two-phase flow patterns in horizontal rectangular microchannels, with the dimensions equal to 1.0 mm width × 0.1 mm depth, and 1.0 mm width × 0.2 mm depth, respectively. The flow patterns such as bubble flow, slug flow and annular flow were observed. The microchannel data showed similar data patterns compared to those in minichannels with the width of 1∼10mm and the depth of 1mm which we had previously reported on. However, in a 1.0 × 0.1 mm microchannel, the mean holdup and the base film thickness in annular flow showed larger values because the effects of liquid viscosity and surface tension on the holdup and void fraction dominate. The remarkable flow characteristics of rivulet flow and the flow with a partial dry out of the channel inner wall were observed in slug flow and annular flow patterns in the microchannel of 0.1 mm depth.


Author(s):  
Bai Bofeng ◽  
Liu Maolong ◽  
Su Wang ◽  
Zhang Xiaojie

An experimental study was conducted on the air-water two-phase flow patterns in the bed of rectangular cross sections containing spheres of regular distribution. Three kinds of glass spheres with different diameters (3 mm, 6 mm, and 8 mm) were used for the establishment of the test section. By means of visual observations of the two-phase flow through the test section, it was discovered that five different flow patterns occurred within the experimental parameter ranges, namely, bubbly flow, bubbly-slug flow, slug flow, slug-annular flow, and annular flow. A correlation for the bubble and slug diameter in the packed beds was proposed, which was an extended expression of the Tung/Dhir model, Jamialahmadi’s model, and Schmidt’s model. Three correlations were proposed to calculate the void friction of the flow pattern transition in bubble flow, slug flow, and annular flow based on the bubble model in the pore region. The experimental result showed that the modified Tung and Dhir model of the flow pattern transition was in better agreement with the experimental data compared with Tung and Dhir’s model.


2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Coleman ◽  
Srinivas Garimella

Abstract An experimental investigation of two-phase flow mechanisms during condensation of refrigerant R134a in small diameter round and rectangular tubes was conducted. A 4.91 mm round tube, and four round tubes with hydraulic diameters ranging from 1 mm – 4 mm were studied to characterize the influence of tube miniaturization on the flow mechanisms. For each tube under consideration, flow mechanisms were recorded over the entire range of qualities 0 < x < 1, and for five different mass fluxes between 150 kg/m2-s and 750 kg/m2-s. Approximately 50 data points were recorded for each tube to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the effects of geometry, mass flux and quality on the phase-change flow mechanisms. The flow mechanisms were categorized into four different flow regimes: intermittent flow, wavy flow, annular flow, and dispersed flow. In addition, the large amount of data over a wide range of test conditions enabled the delineation of several different flow patterns within each flow regime, which provides a clearer understanding of the different modes of two-phase flow. Transition lines between the respective flow patterns and regimes on these maps were established based on the experimental data. It was found that the intermittent flow regime becomes larger as the tube hydraulic diameter is decreased. Also, the size of the wavy flow regime decreases for the small diameter tubes, and disappears completely for the 1 × 1 mm square tube. These maps and transition lines can be used to predict the flow pattern or regime that will be established for a given mass flux, quality and tube geometry.


Author(s):  
Stamatis Kalogerakos ◽  
Mustapha Gourma ◽  
Chris Thompson

Severe limitations of the use of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics codes (CFD) arise when trying to simulate multiphase flow in long pipes due to time constraints. 1D codes for two-phase flow, based on two-fluid models, are fast but are known to be accurate only when the velocities are within the Kelvin-Helmholtz inviscid limit [1]. An alternative is to carry out a two-dimensional CFD simulation of a channel based on the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model. 2D CFD has a wider applicability range compared to 1D, it does not have the issue of ill-posedness and it also has better turbulence models built in. Again compared to 1D the 2D VOF model has a better interface description and wall treatment. In this paper a novel method is introduced that allows swift simulations of pipeline two-phase flow in the stratified and slug flow regime, by approximating the pipe as a channel and with a methodology that solves the problem of the interfacial velocity differences, inherent in the volume of fluid model. An initial validation using the wave growth problem has already been carried out [2]. Here a set consisting of 92 experimental cases in the slug flow regime has been simulated with 2D CFD, and the simulation results showed a good agreement with experimental results. Discussions in the paper include also the question of the range of applicability for 2D CFD, and the advantages and disadvantages compared to 3D CFD and also to 1D code based on the two-fluid model. Shear stresses are then extracted from the 2D CFD simulations and used to recalibrate the friction factors [3] used in the 1D code.


Author(s):  
Dong Liu ◽  
Aritra Sur

Addition of surfactants to liquids helps to eliminate intermittent two-phase flow patterns and alleviate flow instability. These features are very desirable for two-phase microfluidic applications. However, very little information is available on two-phase flow patterns of surfactant solution in the microchannels. The present paper reports a study of adiabatic two-phase flow with surfactants in a circular microchannel of a 180-μm diameter. Air-water mixtures with trace quantities of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) were used in the experiments. The maximum superficial velocities measured were 4 m/s for the liquid and 65 m/s for the gas. High-speed photographic technique was employed to visualize various two-phase flow patterns and to identify the transition boundaries between different flow regimes. The results were compared to data obtained from air-water flow without surfactants. It was found that addition of surfactants brings in significant modification to the two-phase flow regimes as well as their transition characteristics in microchannels; in particular, slug flow is effectively suppressed.


Energies ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 533
Author(s):  
Huishu Liu ◽  
Jimiao Duan ◽  
Kecheng Gu ◽  
Jiang Li ◽  
Hao Yan ◽  
...  

Gas–liquid flow in a pipeline is a very common. Slug two-phase flow is dominated in the case of slightly upward flow (+0.25°) and considered to be the comprehensive flow configuration, and can be in close contact with all the other flow patterns. The models of different flow patterns can be unified. Precise prediction of the slug flow is crucial for proper design and operation. In this paper, we develop hydrodynamics unified modeling for gas–liquid two-phase slug flow, and the bubble and droplet entrainment is optimized. For the important parameters (wall and interfacial friction factors, slug translational velocity and average slug length), the correlations of these parameters are optimized. Furthermore, the related parameters for liquid droplet and gas bubble entrainment are given. Accounting for the gas–liquid interface shape, hydrodynamics models, i.e., the flat interface model (FIM) and the double interface model (DIM), of liquid film in the slug body are applied and compared with the experimental data. The calculated results show that the predictions for the liquid holdup and pressure gradient of the DIM agree with experimental data better than those of the FIM. A comparison between the available experimental results and Zhang’s model calculations shows that the DIM model correctly describes the slug dynamics in gas–liquid pipe flow.


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