TY - GEN
T1 - Effect of surface wettability and gas/liquid velocity ratio on microscale two-phase flow patterns
AU - Li, Hongxia
AU - Okaeme, Charles C.
AU - Yang, Weilin
AU - Zhang, Tie Jun
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Cooperative Agreement between the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, UAE and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. The authors appreciate the assistance from Prof. Haibo Huang at the University of Science and Technology of China.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 by ASME.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Predicting and controlling the flow regime transition of multiphase fluids in microchannels is essential for various energy applications, such as flow boiling, de-emulsification and oil recovery processes. This in turn requires a better understanding of multiphase flow behaviors in microchannels with various channel surface wettability, fluid interfacial tension and flow rates. In this paper, experiments and Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) simulations are carried out to study complicated multiphase flow at micro or meso scales. With the Shan-Chen multiphase LBM model, the flow pattern transitions of adiabatic two phase flow in a microchannel were investigated. The effects of surface wettability and liquid/gas velocity ratio on the flow regime transition were further studied. A series of two-phase flow experiments were conducted on a PDMS microfluidic device under different gas/oil velocity ratios. Under various surface wettability conditions, our simulation results agree well with the flow visualization experiments equipped with a high speed camera (HSC). Our finding shows that the cross-section meniscus curve width, corresponding to the shadow in the HSC photo, increases with decreasing contact angle, which was confirmed by the simulated liquid/gas distribution. Besides the influence of surface wettability, the role of gas/liquid velocity ratio on two-phase flow regime transition was discussed in detail. The proposed approach paves the way to probe complicated physics of multiphase flows in microporous media.
AB - Predicting and controlling the flow regime transition of multiphase fluids in microchannels is essential for various energy applications, such as flow boiling, de-emulsification and oil recovery processes. This in turn requires a better understanding of multiphase flow behaviors in microchannels with various channel surface wettability, fluid interfacial tension and flow rates. In this paper, experiments and Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) simulations are carried out to study complicated multiphase flow at micro or meso scales. With the Shan-Chen multiphase LBM model, the flow pattern transitions of adiabatic two phase flow in a microchannel were investigated. The effects of surface wettability and liquid/gas velocity ratio on the flow regime transition were further studied. A series of two-phase flow experiments were conducted on a PDMS microfluidic device under different gas/oil velocity ratios. Under various surface wettability conditions, our simulation results agree well with the flow visualization experiments equipped with a high speed camera (HSC). Our finding shows that the cross-section meniscus curve width, corresponding to the shadow in the HSC photo, increases with decreasing contact angle, which was confirmed by the simulated liquid/gas distribution. Besides the influence of surface wettability, the role of gas/liquid velocity ratio on two-phase flow regime transition was discussed in detail. The proposed approach paves the way to probe complicated physics of multiphase flows in microporous media.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84969902477
U2 - 10.1115/MNHMT2016-6383
DO - 10.1115/MNHMT2016-6383
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84969902477
T3 - ASME 2016 5th International Conference on Micro/Nanoscale Heat and Mass Transfer, MNHMT 2016
BT - Micro/Nano-Thermal Manufacturing and Materials Processing; Boiling, Quenching and Condensation Heat Transfer on Engineered Surfaces; Computational Methods in Micro/Nanoscale Transport; Heat and Mass Transfer in Small Scale; Micro/Miniature Multi-Phase Devices; Biomedical Applications of Micro/Nanoscale Transport; Measurement Techniques and Thermophysical Properties in Micro/Nanoscale; Posters
T2 - ASME 2016 5th International Conference on Micro/Nanoscale Heat and Mass Transfer, MNHMT 2016
Y2 - 4 January 2016 through 6 January 2016
ER -