Transport of Wetting and Nonwetting Liquid Plugs in a T-shaped Microchannel

doi:10.1016/S1004-9541(13)60523-6

Chin.J.Chem.Eng. ›› 2013, Vol. 21 ›› Issue (5): 463-472.DOI: 10.1016/S1004-9541(13)60523-6

• FLUID DYNAMICS AND TRANSPORT PHENOMENA • Next Articles

Transport of Wetting and Nonwetting Liquid Plugs in a T-shaped Microchannel

YONG Yumei¹, LI Sha¹, YANG Chao¹, YIN Xiaolong²

1 Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China;
2 Petroleum Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80402, USA

Received:2011-10-12 Revised:2012-04-25 Online:2013-05-31 Published:2013-05-28
Supported by:
Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB224806), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (20990224, 21276256), the National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (21025627) and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2012AA03A606).

Transport of Wetting and Nonwetting Liquid Plugs in a T-shaped Microchannel

雍玉梅¹, 李莎¹, 杨超¹, 尹小龙²

1 Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China;
2 Petroleum Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80402, USA

通讯作者: YANG Chao
基金资助:
Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB224806), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (20990224, 21276256), the National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (21025627) and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2012AA03A606).

Abstract

Abstract: The transport of liquid plugs in microchannels is very important for many applications such as in medical treatments in airways and in extraction of oil from porous rocks. A plug of wetting and non-wetting liquids driven by a constant pressure difference through a T-shaped microchannel is studied numerically with lattice Boltzmann (LB) method. A two-phase flow LB model based on field mediators is built. Three typical flow patterns (blocking, rupture and splitting flow) of plug flow are obtained with different driving pressures. It is found that it becomes difficult for a plug with short initial plug length to leave the microchannel; the flow pattern of plug transport varies with the contact angle, especially from wetting to nonwetting; with the increase of interfacial tension, the front interface of plug moves faster; the front and rear interfaces of the plug with small viscosity ratio move faster in the microchannel than those of the plug with large viscosity ratio. The study is helpful to provide theoretical data for the design and scale-up of liquid-liquid reactors and separators.

Key words: lattice Boltzmann method, plug flow, contact angle, interfacial tension, microchannel

摘要： The transport of liquid plugs in microchannels is very important for many applications such as in medical treatments in airways and in extraction of oil from porous rocks. A plug of wetting and non-wetting liquids driven by a constant pressure difference through a T-shaped microchannel is studied numerically with lattice Boltzmann (LB) method. A two-phase flow LB model based on field mediators is built. Three typical flow patterns (blocking, rupture and splitting flow) of plug flow are obtained with different driving pressures. It is found that it becomes difficult for a plug with short initial plug length to leave the microchannel; the flow pattern of plug transport varies with the contact angle, especially from wetting to nonwetting; with the increase of interfacial tension, the front interface of plug moves faster; the front and rear interfaces of the plug with small viscosity ratio move faster in the microchannel than those of the plug with large viscosity ratio. The study is helpful to provide theoretical data for the design and scale-up of liquid-liquid reactors and separators.

关键词: lattice Boltzmann method, plug flow, contact angle, interfacial tension, microchannel

YONG Yumei, LI Sha, YANG Chao, YIN Xiaolong. Transport of Wetting and Nonwetting Liquid Plugs in a T-shaped Microchannel[J]. Chin.J.Chem.Eng., 2013, 21(5): 463-472.

雍玉梅, 李莎, 杨超, 尹小龙. Transport of Wetting and Nonwetting Liquid Plugs in a T-shaped Microchannel[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2013, 21(5): 463-472.

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Transport of Wetting and Nonwetting Liquid Plugs in a T-shaped Microchannel

Transport of Wetting and Nonwetting Liquid Plugs in a T-shaped Microchannel

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