Mixing Characteristics of a Two-Phase Flow (Gas-Liquid) Microchannel Mixer

Multiphase phase flows occur in many engineering and bio-medical applications. Bubble formation in microchannels can be beneficial or harmful depending upon their influence on the operation and performance of microfludic devices. Potential uses of bubble generation found in many applications such as microreactors, micropump, and micromixers. In the present work the flow and mixing process in a passive microchannel mixer were numerically investigated. Effects of velocity, and inlet width ratio (Dgas/Dliquid) on the two phase flow were studied. Numerical results are obtained for 2-dimensional and 3-dimesional cases with a finite volume CFD code and using structured grids. Different liquid-gas Reynolds number ratios (Reliquid/Regas) were used ranging from 4 to 42. In addition, three values of the inlet width ratio (Dgas/Dliquid) were used. Results for the 3-D cases capture the actual shape of the air bubble with the thin film between the bubble and the walls. Also, increasing Reliquid increases the rate of the development of the air bubble. The bubble length increases with the increase of Dgas/Dliquid. For the same values of Re, the rate of growth of the bubble increases with the increase of Dgas/Dliquid. Finally, a correlation is provided to predict the length of the bubble with liquid-gas Reynolds number ratio (Reliquid/Regas) and tube width.

Simulation of Two Designs of Micro-Mixers With Enhanced Advection Mechanisms

In this paper, a numerical study of two new designs of passive micro-mixers based on chaotic advection is presented. The advection phenomenon in a T-shaped micro-mixer is enhanced using a segmented gas-liquid flow; and a peripheral/axial mixing mechanism. The simulations are performed for two non-reactive miscible gases: oxygen and methanol. The numerical model employed for this study is based on the solution of the physical governing equations namely the continuity, momentum, species transport and an equation to track the free surface development. The equations are discretized using a control volume numerical technique. The distribution of the species concentration within the domain is calculated based on which a mixing intensity factor is introduced. This factor is then used as a criterion for the mixing length. In the first micro-mixer design with a drop injection mechanism for a typical condition, the mixing length is reduced by nearly 15%. Compared to that of a simple T-shaped micro-mixer with the same flow rates, the two gases interface area is increased in axisymmetric micro-mixer leading to an increase of the mixing efficiency and a reduction of the mixing length. Also, the effects of the baffles height and span on the mixing efficiency and length in axisymmetric micro-mixer are studied. Having baffles in the channel can substantially decrease the mixing length.

Flow Characteristics of Adiabatic Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow in a Horizontal Flat Rectangular Microchannel

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.

Numerical Study of Microchannel Heat Sinks With Non-Uniform Heat Flux Conditions

Higher heat flux is produced by Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) because of their reduced size and increased clock speed. At the mean time, studies of non-uniform heating conditions which are more practical than uniform heating conditions are inadequate and needed urgently. Four nonuniform heating conditions are simulated in the paper. Three heat sinks with different widths of cross-linked channels locating above the center of hotspots are studied and compared to conventional straight microchannel heat sink. Half of the module geometry is chosen to be the computational domain. Two hotspots are placed at the bottom surface. The coolant is water, whose properties are dependent on temperature. Two inlet velocities, 0.5 m/s and 1 m/s, are tested for each heat sink. Temperature profile at the hotspots, pressure drop and total thermal resistance are selected as criteria of evaluating heat sink performance. All heat sinks have better performance when there is an upstream hotspot or the upstream hotspot is subjected to a higher heat flux. Cross-linked channel width of 0.5 mm has the best benefit to obtain better temperature uniformity without increasing the maximum temperature on the bottom surface.

Heat and Mass Transfer Enhancement by Active Flow Control in Micro Domains

A flow control method is presented that employ liquid and gas jets to enhance heat and mass transfer in micro domains. By introducing pressure disturbances, mixing can be significantly enhanced through the promotion of early transition to a turbulent flow. Since heat transfer mechanisms are closely linked to flow characteristics, the heat transfer coefficient can be significantly enhanced with rigorous mixing. The flow field of water around a low aspect ratio micro circular pillar of diameter 150 μm entrenched inside a 225 μm high by 1500 μm wide microchannel with active flow control was studied and its effect on mixing is discussed. A steady control jet emanating from a 25 μm slit on the pillar was introduced to induce favorable disturbances to the flow in order to modify the flow field, promote turbulence, and increase large-scale mixing. Micro particle image velocimetry (μPIV) was employed to quantify the flow field, the spanwise vorticity, and the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in the microchannel. Flow regimes (i.e., steady, transition from quasi-steady to unsteady, and unsteady flow) were elucidated. The turbulent kinetic energy was shown to significantly increase with the controlled jet, and therefore, significantly enhance mixing at the micro scale.

Stability and Enhancement of Boiling in Microchannels

During the past 20 years, there has been intense worldwide interest in microchannel heat exchangers, particularly for cooling of microelectronic components. Saturated boiling of the coolant is usually indicated in order to accommodate high heat fluxes and to have uniformity of temperature. However, boiling is accompanied by several instabilities, the most severe of which can sharply limit the maximum, or critical, heat flux. These stability phenomena are reviewed, and recent studies will be discussed. Elevation of the critical heat flux will be discussed within the context of heat transfer enhancement. Means to improve the stability of boiling and the enhancement of boiling heat transfer, in general, are discussed.

Experimental Investigation of Inertial Mixing in Droplets

Achieving the fast mixing requirements posed by the chemical, biological, and life science community for confined microchannel flows remains an engineering challenge. The viscous and surface tension forces that dominate conventional micro-flows undermine fast, efficient mixing. By increasing the collisional velocity of reagent droplets, inertia can be exploited to increase mixing rates. This paper experimentally investigates inertial droplet mixing in micro flows. A high speed, gaseous flow is used to detach, transport, and collide droplets of nanoliter-size volumes in standard T and Y-junction microchannel geometries. Mixing rates are quantified using differential fluorescent optical diagnostics. Measured droplet mixing times are compared to the characteristic time scales for mass and viscous diffusion and bulk convection. Results show that mixing times are decreased as the droplet inertia is increased, indicating the potential benefit of inertia-driven mixing.

Modeling of Electroosmotic Nanoflows With Overlapped Double Layer

In the present paper a new model is proposed for electric double layer (EDL) overlapped in nanochannels. The model aimed to obtain a deeper insight of transport phenomena in nanoscale. Two-dimensional Nernst and ionic conservation equations are used to obtain electroosmotic potential distribution in flow field. In the proposed study, transport equations for flow, ionic concentration and electroosmotic potential are solved numerically via finite volume method. Moreover, Debye-Hu¨ckle (DH) approximation and symmetry condition, which limit the application, are avoided. Thus, the present model is suitable for prediction of electroosmotic flows through nanochannels as well as complicated asymmetric geometries with large nonuniform zeta potential distribution. For homogeneous zeta potential distribution, it has been shown that by reduction of channel height to values comparable with EDL thickness, Poisson-Boltzmann model produces inaccurate results and must be avoided. Furthermore, for overlapped electric double layer in nanochannels with heterogeneous zeta potential distribution it has been found that the present model returns modified ionic concentration and electroosmotic potential distribution compare to previous EDL overlapped models due to 2D solution of ionic concentration distribution. Finally, velocity profiles in EDL overlapped nanochannels are investigated and it has been showed that for pure electroosmotic flow the velocity profile deviates from the expected plug-like profile towards a parabolic profile.

Developing Cross Drag Expressions for Nanotube Bundles Using Molecular Dynamics

The nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations are performed to calculation the cross drag over a nanotube located in a uniform liquid argon flow. As is known, the behavior of fluid flows in nano-scale sizes is very different from that in microscopic and macroscopic sizes. In this work, our concern is on the flow of argon molecules over a nanotube which occurs in nanoscale sizes. We calculate the cross drag enforced the nanotube at Re≤1.0. In this regard, we use the molecular dynamics and simulate the flow of argon molecules over (6,0), (8,0) and (10,0) nanotubes. The simulations are performed at different velocities and the cross drag coefficient is computed at different Reynolds numbers. To improve the efficiency of simulations, we use USHER algorithm and examin the insertion of molecules at the end of the simulation box, the argon molecules are located out of box. Using the power trend line, we derived a formula, which approximates the cross drag of chosen nanotube. In all simulations, only the first two and the last two rings of the nanotube are frozen. All non-bonded interactions are calculated based on the Lennard-Jones potential. The results if molecular dynamics are compared with two empirical expressions provided by experiments performed on the flow over a macro-scale cylinder. The results show that the cross drag force on a single-walled nanotube calculated from MD simulations is larger than that provided by the empirical expressions in slow flows (Re≪ 1.0). As is expected the results of continuum flow calculations cannot be trusted to predict the drag of a nanotubes if Re≪1.0. The difference increases as the flow velocity decreases.

Enhancement of Inter-Phase Transport in Mini/Micro-Scale Applications Using Passive Mixing

Structured mini/micro-scale reactors continue to receive attention from both industry and academia due to their low pressure drop, high mass transfer rates and ease of scale-up when compared to conventional reactor technology. Commonly considered for heat and mass transfer limited reactions such as hydrogenations, hydrodesulphurization, oxidations and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, the performance of these systems is highly dependent on mixing and the interfacial area between phases. While existing literature describes the initial flow patterns generated by a broad range of two-phase contactors, few studies explore the dynamic impacts of downstream passive mixing elements. Experimental and computational methodologies for characterizing two-phase flow pattern transitions, pressure drop, mixing and mass transfer are discussed, with relevant examples for serpentine and venturi-based passive mixing designs. The efficacy of these two configurations are explored in the context of pressure drop, conditions leading to significant interface renewal, and design considerations for optimizing mass transfer. Challenges associate with the characterization of multiphase flow through these systems are highlighted, and strategies suggested for both experimental and computational analysis of dynamic flow patterns and fluid-fluid interactions.