Measurement and Correlation of Pressure Drop for Gas-Liquid Two-phase Flow in Rectangular Microchannels

The pressure drop of gas-liquid two-phase flow in microchannel is of fundamental importance in heat and mass transfer processes. In this work,the pressure drop of gas-liquid two-phase flow in horizontal rectangular cross-section microchannels was measured by a pressure differential transducer system. Water,ethanol and n-propanol were used as liquid phase to study the effects of capillary number on pressure drop;air was used as the gas phase. Four microchannels with various dimensions of 100 μm× 200 μm,100 μm× 400 μm,100 μm× 800 μm and 100 μm× 2000 μm(depth × width) were used for determining the influence of configuration on the pressure drop. Experimental results showed that in micro-scale,the capillary number also affected the pressure drop remarkably,and in spite of only one-fold difference in aspect ratio,the variation of pressure drop reached up to near three times under the same experimental conditions. Taking the effects of aspect ratio and surface tension into account,a modi-fied correlation for Chisholm parameter C in the Chisholm model was proposed for predicting the frictional multi-plier,and the predicted values by the proposed correlation showed a satisfactory agreement with experimental data.

Electromagnetohydrodynamic flows and mass transport in curved rectangular microchannels

Curved microchannels are often encountered in lab-on-chip systems because the effective axial channel lengths of such channels are often larger than those of straight microchannels for a given per unit chip length.In this paper,the effective diffusivity of a neutral solute in an oscillating electromagnetohydrodynamic(EMHD)flow through a curved rectangular microchannel is investigated theoretically.The flow is assumed as a creeping flow due to the extremely low Reynolds number in such microflow systems.Through the theoretical analysis,we find that the effective diffusivity primarily depends on five dimensionless parameters,i.e.,the curvature ratio of the curved channel,the Schmidt number,the tidal displacement,the angular Reynolds number,and the dimensionless electric field strength parameter.Based on the obtained results,we can precisely control the mass transfer characteristics of the EMHD flow in a curved rectangular microchannel by appropriately altering the corresponding parameter values.

Effect of boundary slip on electroosmotic flow in a curved rectangular microchannel

The aim of this study is to numerically investigate the impact of boundary slip on electroosmotic flow(EOF) in curved rectangular microchannels. Navier slip boundary conditions were employed at the curved microchannel walls. The electric potential distribution was governed by the Poisson–Boltzmann equation, whereas the velocity distribution was determined by the Navier–Stokes equation. The finite-difference method was employed to solve these two equations. The detailed discussion focuses on the impact of the curvature ratio, electrokinetic width, aspect ratio and slip length on the velocity. The results indicate that the present problem is strongly dependent on these parameters. The results demonstrate that by varying the dimensionless slip length from 0.001 to 0.01 while maintaining a curvature ratio of 0.5 there is a twofold increase in the maximum velocity. Moreover, this increase becomes more pronounced at higher curvature ratios. In addition, the velocity difference between the inner and outer radial regions increases with increasing slip length. Therefore, the incorporation of the slip boundary condition results in an augmented velocity and a more non-uniform velocity distribution. The findings presented here offer valuable insights into the design and optimization of EOF performance in curved hydrophobic microchannels featuring rectangular cross-sections.

Numerical investigation of Reynolds number and scaling effects in microchannels flows

Compared with conventional channels, experiments of microchannel often exhibit some controversial findings and sometimes even opposite trends, most notably the effects of the Reynolds number and the scaled channel height on the Poiseuille number. The experimental method has still been constrained by two key facts, firstly the current ability to machine microstructures and secondly the limitation of measurement of parameters related to the Poiseuille number. As a consequence, numerical method was adopted in this study in order to analyze a flow in two-dimensional rectangular microchannels using water as working fluid. Results are obtained by the solution of the steady laminar incompressible Navier-Stokes equations using control volume finite element method（CVFEM） without pressure correction. The computation was made for channel height ranging from 50 ？m to 4.58 ？m and Reynolds number varying from 0.4 to 1 600. The effect of Reynolds number and channel heights on flow characteristics was investigated. The results showed that the Poiseuille numbers agree fairly well with the experimental measurements proving that there is no scale effect at small channel height. This scaling effect has been confirmed by two additional simulations being carried out at channel heights of 2.5 ？m and 0.5 ？m, respectively and the range of Reynolds number was extended from 0.01 up to 1 600. This study confirm that the conventional analysis approach can be employed with confidence for predicting flow behavior in microchannels when coupled with carefully matched entrance and boundary conditions in the dimensional range considered here.

Flow regimes of the immiscible liquids within a rectangular microchannel

Flow regimes of two immiscible liquids at the cross junction within a rectangular microchannel are experimentally investigated.Characteristics of the flow regimes including critical conditions and interfacial deformations are presented.It is found that the occurrence of the tubing regime is favored by increased viscosity of the dispersed phase or reduced cross-sectional aspect ratio,leading to the shrinkage of the flow rate range that could produce droplets.In order to reveal the physical mechanism,the force analysis is carried out based on the tunnel structure formed between the interface and channel side walls within the rectangular cross-section.The reshaping stage and pinch-off stage are mainly driven by the interfacial tension,leading to far larger neck thinning rate compared to the superficial velocity of either phase.The filling stage and squeezing stage are dominated by the pressure drop across the dispersed tip while the role of the shear force becomes more important with increasing tunnel width.The filling period is estimated as t2≈kHwn02/Qd with k=1.34 and the squeezing period is expressed as t3/Tc=0.3Cac−1.According to the force analysis,the critical tip velocity under dripping scales with three key parameters,which can be expressed as(utip/U)*~QcLtip/wtunnel3.

Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer in Rectangular Microchannel

Numerical simulation of heat transfer in a high aspect ratio rectangular microchannel with heat sinks has been conducted,similar to an experimental study.Three channel heights measuring 0.3 mm,0.6 mm and 1 mm are considered and the Reynolds number varies from 300 to 2360,based on the hydraulic diameter.Simulation starts with the validation study on the Nusselt number and the Poiseuille number variations along the channel streamwise direction.It is found that the predicted Nusselt number has shown very good agreement with the theoretical estimation,but some discrepancies are noted in the Poiseuille number comparison.This observation however is in consistent with conclusions made by other researchers for the same flow problem.Simulation continues on the evaluation of heat transfer characteristics,namely the friction factor and the thermal resistance.It is found that noticeable scaling effect happens at small channel height of 0.3 mm and the predicted friction factor agrees fairly well with an experimental based correlation.Present simulation further reveals that the thermal resistance is low at small channel height,indicating that the heat transfer performance can be enhanced with the decrease of the channel height.

An Experimental Investigation on the Confined and Elongated Bubbles in Subcooled Flow Boiling in a Single Microchannel

The characteristics of the confined bubble and elongated bubble in subcooled flow boiling in a single horizontal rectangular microchannel with hydraulic diameter Dh=1mm are studied experimentally. The channel with 1 ×1mm cross section is fabricated in a thin copper plate whose confinement number is Co=2.8 and the degassed deionized water is used as the working fluid. Visualization on the confined and elongated bubbles inside the microchannel is carded out by employing a high-speed CCD camera with a rnicrolens. The recorded images are carefully analyzed to illustrate the behaviors of the confinement and elongation processes of the bubble. The boiling number is used as an adjustable parameter to regulate the operating conditions which is eventually found to take a vital role in the bubble elongation process. Two formation patterns of the confined and elongated bubble are identified and the interactions between the neighboring confined and elongated bubbles are elucidated.