T型微通道反应器内气液两相流动机制及影响因素

基于液滴或气泡的多相微流控是近年来微流控技术中快速发展的重要分支之一.本文利用高速显微摄影技术和数字图像处理技术对T型微通道反应器内气液两相流动机制及影响因素进行实验研究.实验采用添加表面活性剂的海藻酸钠水溶液作为液相,空气作为气相.研究T型微通道反应器内气液两相流型的转变过程,并根据微通道内气泡的生成频率和生成气泡的长径比对气泡流进行分类.研究发现当前的进料方式下,可以观测到气泡流和分层流2种流型,且依据气泡生成频率和微通道内气泡的长径比可将气泡流划分为分散气泡流、短弹状气泡流和长弹状气泡流3种类型,并基于受力分析确定3种气泡流的形成机制分别为剪切机制、剪切–挤压机制和挤压机制.考察不同液相黏度和表面张力系数对不同类型气泡流范围的影响规律.结果表明:液相黏度相较于表面张力系数而言,对气泡流生成范围影响更大.给出不同类型气泡流流型转变条件的无量纲关系式,实现微通道生成微气泡过程的可控操作.     

垂直上升管内油—气—水三相弹状流压力降的研究

给出一种垂直上升油－气－水三相弹状流压力降的计算模型。该模型考虑弹状流中Ｔａｙｌｏｒ气泡周围下降液膜的变化历程。通过油－气－水弹状流的实验研究发现，该模型的数值模拟结果与低压工况下的实验值符合得较好。本模型是计算垂直油－气－水三相弹状流中液相的连续相为水相时的压力降的有效方法。     

台阶式并行微通道内气泡群自组装行为及其对气泡生成的反馈效应

台阶式微通道乳化装置因易于高通量生产均一性的气泡及液滴而受到关注.本文利用高速摄像仪研究了台阶式并行微通道装置空腔内的气泡群复杂行为及其对气泡生成的反馈效应.实验设计的操作变量为气液相进出口位置、气相流速和液相流速.在实验操作范围内,共发现了气泡的单管生成模式和多管生成模式.研究了空腔内气泡群复杂行为随操作条件的变化趋势.发现在受限空间内,气泡在水平面内发生挤压堵塞能够自组装成具有特定几何特点的二维晶格,分别为有序的行三角晶格、有序的竖三角晶格和无序的三角晶格.晶格结构与气相压力密切相关;同时,气泡界面能量随着气相压力的增大而增大.运用介尺度、能量和活化等概念分析了气泡群复杂行为对气泡生成方式的影响,充分阐释了受限空间内气泡群的介尺度效应.以变异系数CV来表示气泡的均匀性特征,考察了气泡晶格自组装行为的控制因素.结果表明:气泡的自组装路径由气泡尺寸及其分布决定,有序的三角晶格变异系数小于5%,无序的三角晶格变异系数大于5%.     

台阶式并行微通道内气泡群自组装行为及其对气泡生成的反馈效应

台阶式微通道乳化装置因易于高通量生产均一性的气泡及液滴而受到关注.本文利用高速摄像仪研究了台阶式并行微通道装置空腔内的气泡群复杂行为及其对气泡生成的反馈效应.实验设计的操作变量为气液相进出口位置、气相流速和液相流速. 在实验操作范围内,共发现了气泡的单管生成模式和多管生成模式.研究了空腔内气泡群复杂行为随操作条件的变化趋势. 发现在受限空间内,气泡在水平面内发生挤压堵塞能够自组装成具有特定几何特点的二维晶格,分别为有序的行三角晶格、有序的竖三角晶格和无序的三角晶格.晶格结构与气相压力密切相关; 同时, 气泡界面能量随着气相压力的增大而增大.运用介尺度、能量和活化等概念分析了气泡群复杂行为对气泡生成方式的影响,充分阐释了受限空间内气泡群的介尺度效应.以变异系数CV来表示气泡的均匀性特征, 考察了气泡晶格自组装行为的控制因素.结果表明: 气泡的自组装路径由气泡尺寸及其分布决定,有序的三角晶格变异系数小于5%, 无序的三角晶格变异系数大于5%.      

微管内气液两相流中液膜厚度的实验测量

微通道内气液两相流中气柱(plug bubble)与通道壁之间液膜厚度的实验测量,是微热管、微流动、微电子冷却以及气泡雾化等研究中普遍关注的问题.本文利用基于光学干涉和快速傅立叶变换的空间频谱分析方法,实验测量获取了含表面活性剂水中气柱在750μm 通道内运动时其与通道壁面之间的液膜厚度.实验结果表明:表面活性剂对液膜厚度的影响比较明显,即当表面活性剂浓度在一定范围内增大时,液膜厚度会减小;此外,当气柱运动速度在一定范围内增大时,液膜厚度也会减小.     

水平管内气液两相螺旋流实验研究

为研究水平管内气液两相螺旋流的流动特性,开展了以空气和水为实验介质,含气率为10％～90％,气相折算速度为0.01～3.4m/s,液相折算速度为0.05～2.7m/s的气液两相螺旋流实验.利用高速摄影机记录并参考借鉴相关研究结果分析和划分了不同工况下的流型;给出了水平管内气液两相螺旋流的流型图;研究了不同流速、不同起旋参数对流动特性(压降、流型衰减、螺距、螺旋直径以及流型转换边界等)的影响.实验结论如下:将水平管内气液两相螺旋流的流型划分为螺旋波状分层流、螺旋泡状流、螺旋团状流、螺旋线状流、螺旋轴状流、螺旋弥散流6种;将绘制的流型图与经典Mandhane流型图进行对比,出现了线状流、弥散流和轴状流3种新的流型;泡状流的分布基本不变,层状流的分布发生变化,当气相流速在2m/s以内时是线状流和轴状流,而不是层状流;随着液相流速的提高,管内两相流动的损失逐渐变大,流型的衰减程度变弱,螺旋扭矩逐渐变大,螺旋直径逐渐变小.另外,随着叶轮角度的增大或者随着叶片面积的减小,流型转换边界均向进气量增大的方向推移.而当进气量一定时,随着叶轮角度的增大或者随着叶片面积的减小,同样流型转换边界趋于进水量增大的方向.最后,随着起旋角度的增大或者随着叶片面积的减小,压降均有逐渐变大的趋势.     

Y型微通道两相流内部流动特性

利用显微粒子图像测速技术、高速度数码显微系统及数值模拟方法研究了Y 型微通道内液滴的形成. 主要考虑了Y 型角度（45°,90°,135°,180°）、两相流量大小等因素的影响. 发现在挤压机制中,Y 型微通道内分散相液滴的形成主要受到来自连续相的剪切作用,Y 型角度越小,分散相所受到的剪切作用越大. 在液滴生成过程中,连续相速度剖面呈非对称抛物线型分布. 当Y 型角度小于180°时,角度的变化对液滴直径大小影响较小,但角度的减小会加快液滴的生成时间. 当Y 型角度为180°时,生成的液滴体积最大且生成时间最长. 毛细数对液滴直径和生成时间的变化同时产生影响,连续相毛细数的增大使得连续相在两相交汇位置处对分散相的作用力更集中,导致分散相更易破裂.      

微油滴供油条件下弹流润滑行为的数值分析

油气润滑条件下润滑油以微油滴形式供给摩擦副,基于此建立了简化的单个微油滴供油弹流润滑模型,模拟了微油滴通过弹流接触区的全过程.结果表明:卷吸速度和润滑油黏度会影响微油滴的扩展距离,进而使接触区油膜的形成产生差异.卷吸速度越高,或润滑油黏度越大,微油滴的扩展距离就会越小,油膜仅在接触区中部区域产生,微油滴类似硬质颗粒般在接触表面挤压出凹坑穿过接触区.理论结果和实验结果对比,具有良好的一致性.     

微管内气液两相流中液膜厚度的实验测量

微通道内气液两相流中气柱（plugbubble）与通道壁之间液膜厚度的实验测量，是微热管、微流动、微电子冷却以及气泡雾化等研究中普遍关注的问题。本文利用基于光学干涉和快速傅立叶变换的空间频谱分析方法，实验测量获取了含表面活性剂水中气柱在750μm通道内运动时其与通道壁面之间的液膜厚度。实验结果表明：表面活性剂对液膜厚度的影响比较明显，即当表面活性剂浓度在一定范围内增大时，液膜厚度会减小；此外，当气柱运动速度在一定范围内增大时，液膜厚度也会减小。     

几何构型对流动聚焦生成微液滴的影响

流动聚焦型微流控装置能够方便、高效地生成均一度好且大小精确可调的微液滴(气泡),故被广泛应用于颗粒材料合成、药物封装、细胞培养等诸多领域. 进一步优化通道结构有助于实现对合成微粒粒径、均一度和尺寸范围的精确调控. 本文数值研究了通道深度、缩颈段长度以及两相夹角等几何构型因素对流动聚焦生成微液滴直径及其生成周期各个阶段的影响. 控制液滴生成方式为滴流式,发现液滴直径随通道深度d 的增加近似呈线性增大,且当通道深度小于30 μm 时,随着通道深度的下降,微液滴生成周期在毛细力的强烈作用下出现骤升,通道深度超过80 μm 时,微液滴的生成周期基本接近恒定. 连续相和离散相的夹角θ接近90°时,液滴直径及其生成周期最短,夹角太大或太小均不利于生成均一度好且粒径微小可控的液滴. 调整缩颈段长度l引起液滴直径及其生成周期的变化幅度仅为其平均值的3%~5% 左右. 此外,缩颈段宽度也是影响流动聚焦生成微液滴直径及其生成周期的重要因素,在通道深度固定时,缩颈段越宽,微液滴直径及其生成周期越大.      

Fluctuation characteristics of two-phase flow splitting at a vertical impacting T-junction

In order to investigate the fluctuation characteristics of two-phase flow splitting at a T-junction, particular attention was paid on Churn flow which had the strongest fluctuation comparing with bubble flow and annular flow. The main tube of the T-junction was vertical and the two branches were horizontal. All three pipes connecting to the junction were of 15 mm inner diameter. A statistical analysis based on Root Mean Square (RMS) was applied to temporal differential pressure signals and gas flow rate signals. The Power Spectral Density (PSD) was also employed to reveal their peculiar features in frequency domain as well. The effects of the extraction flow ratio and the gas and liquid superficial velocity upstream on fluctuation characteristics of gas-liquid two-phase flow splitting at the T-junction were investigated in detail. It is found that there is a wide fluctuation in both differential pressure and gas flow rate downstream at every extraction ratio (W₃/W₁) and the fluctuation intensity increases as W₃/W₁ increasing. It is also made clear that increasing either water superficial velocity or gas superficial velocity in inlet causes fluctuation to become more intensive.     

Bubble generation and transport in a microfluidic device with high aspect ratio

Bubble generation and transport in a micro-device composed of a micro-T-junction and a following serpentine micro-channel was experimentally investigated. It has a rectangular cross-sectional with an aspect ratio of 7.425. Air and water were used as gas and liquid, respectively. Mixtures of water–glycerol and water–Tween-20 were used to study the effects of liquid viscosity and surface tension. Compared with previous T-junction bubble generation, the liquid and gas inlets orientation was switched in this work. The continuous flow was driven from the perpendicular channel and the dispersion flow was from the main channel. It shows that the break-up process has three periodic steps under certain operating conditions. The dimensionless bubble length L/w in the micro-channel with high aspect ratio is much larger than that in square microchannels. A correlation is proposed to correlate L/w with liquid flow rate J_L, gas flow rate J_G, and liquid viscosity μ_L. Surface tension σ can change the bubble shape but almost does not affect the bubble length in this fast break-up process. Additionally, a long bubble may be broken up at the corners at the same time because the locations of gas and liquid are exchanged relative to the concave and convex portions of an elbow after a turn which may result in the change of fluid velocities and gas–liquid pressure drop.     

Experimental study on hydrodynamic characteristics of upward gas–liquid slug flow

To clarify the impacts of the hydrodynamic boundary layer and the diffusion boundary layer in the near wall zone on gas–liquid two-phase flow induced corrosion in pipelines, the hydrodynamic characteristics of fully developed gas–liquid slug flow in an upward tube are investigated with limiting diffusion current probes, conductivity probes and digital high-speed video system. The Taylor bubble and the falling liquid film characteristics are studied, the effects of various factors are examined, and the experimental results are compared with the data and models available in literature. The length of Taylor bubble, the local void fraction of the slug unit and the liquid slug, the shear stress and mass transfer coefficient in the near wall zone, are all increased with the increase of superficial gas velocity and decreased with the increase of superficial liquid velocity, whereas the length of liquid slug and the liquid slug frequency are changed contrarily. The alternate wall shear stress due to upward gas–liquid slug flow is considered to be one of the major causes for the corrosion production film fatigue cracking. A normalized formula for mass transfer coefficient is obtained based on the experimental data.     

气液混输悬链线立管系统两相流特性实验

严重段塞流是海洋工程气液混输管线--立管系统中常见的一种特殊有害流动现象, 采用水平--下倾--悬链线立管气液混输组合管道系统, 通过系列实验在悬链线立管中获得了严重段塞流、间歇流和震荡流等流型, 阐述了这些流动现象的形成机理, 提出了能够产生严重段塞流的判定准则. 结果表明, 悬链线立管严重段塞流具有明显周期性, 在一个周期内的流动特征可分为液塞形成、液体出流、液气喷发及液体回流等4个阶段, 进而给出了各阶段中相关流动参数的变化规律. 在实验中同时还对悬链线与垂直立管中严重段塞流形成机理进行了比较分析, 发现两者在液塞形成阶段有显著差别. 其中, 在悬链线立管中液塞形成之前首先需要经历一个气液混合液塞形成过程, 而垂直立管则没有这个过程.      

Phase split of nitrogen/non-Newtonian fluid two-phase flow at a micro-T-junction

An experimental investigation has been undertaken to understand the phase split of nitrogen gas/non-Newtonian liquid two-phase flow passing through a 0.5 mm T-junction that oriented horizontally. Four different liquids, including water and aqueous solutions of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) with different mass concentrations of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 wt%, were employed. Rheology experiments showed that different from water, CMC solutions in this study are pseudoplastic non-Newtonian fluid whose viscosity decreases with increasing the shear rate. The inlet flow patterns were observed to be slug flow, slug–annular flow and annular flow. The fraction of liquid taken off at the side arm for nitrogen gas/non-Newtonian liquid systems is found to be higher than that for nitrogen gas/Newtonian liquid systems in all inlet flow patterns. In addition, with increasing the pseudoplasticity of the liquid phase, the side arm liquid taken off increases, but the increasing degree varies with each flow pattern. For annular flow, the increasing degree is much greater than those for slug and slug–annular flows.     

Effect of gas release and condensation on characteristics of two-phase gas-and vapor-liquid slug flow

A model of gas-liquid and vapor-liquid slug flow in vertical channels is suggested. The effect of gas release from a gas-saturated liquid and vapor condensation in a cooling channel on characteristics of two-phase slug flow is investigated. It is shown that gas release and condensation affect significantly the structure of the two-phase gas-liquid and vapor-liquid slug flow.     

Local characteristics of upward gas-liquid flows

The results of two-phase flow structure measurements in an upward gas-liquid flow in a 86.4 mm i.d. tube by the electrochemical and conductivity techniques are presented. Measurements were made in bubble and slug flow regimes at liquid flow rates ranging from 0.2 to 2 m/s.The flow instability and ambiguity in a bubble regime at low velocities is shown to exist. Great discrepancy between measured wall shear stress values and those predicted by the Lockhart-Martinelli model are due to the nonuniform distribution of gas over the tube cross section. Measurements of intensity of wall shear stress and liquid velocity fluctuations in a two-phase flow are presented.     

An investigation on near wall transport characteristics in an adiabatic upward gas–liquid two-phase slug flow

The near-wall transport characteristics, inclusive of mass transfer coefficient and wall shear stress, which have a great effect on gas–liquid two-phase flow induced internal corrosion of low alloy pipelines in vertical upward oil and gas mixing transport, have been both mechanistically and experimentally investigated in this paper. Based on the analyses on the hydrodynamic characteristics of an upward slug unit, the mass transfer in the near wall can be divided into four zones, Taylor bubble nose zone, falling liquid film zone, Taylor bubble wake zone and the remaining liquid slug zone; the wall shear stress can be divided into two zones, the positive wall shear stress zone associated with the falling liquid film and the negative wall shear stress zone associated with the liquid slug. Based on the conventional mass transfer and wall shear stress characteristics formulas of single phase liquid full-pipe turbulent flow, corrected normalized mass transfer coefficient formula and wall shear stress formula are proposed. The calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The shear stress and the mass transfer coefficient in the near wall zone are increased with the increase of superficial gas velocity and decreased with the increase of superficial liquid velocity. The mass transfer coefficients in the falling liquid film zone and the wake zone of leading Taylor bubble are lager than those in the Taylor bubble nose zone and the remaining liquid slug zone, and the wall shear stress associated falling liquid film is larger than that associated the liquid slug. The mass transfer coefficient is within 10⁻³ m/s, and the wall shear stress below 10³ Pa. It can be concluded that the alternate wall shear stress due to upward gas–liquid slug flow is considered to be the major cause of the corrosion production film fatigue cracking.     

3-D numerical simulation of contact angle hysteresis for microscale two phase flow

Understanding the physics of microscale two-phase flow is important for a broad variety of engineering applications including compact PEM fuel cells and heat exchangers. The low Bond number and confined geometry make it critical to consider both the surface tension at the liquid–gas interfaces and the surface forces acting at the channel boundaries. Within the framework of a numerical volume of fluid (VOF) approach, the present work proposes a model to account for surface adhesion forces by considering the effects of contact angle hysteresis. A transient model is developed by correcting boundary force balances through specification of the local contact angle and instantaneously updating the local angle values based on the variation of the volume fraction from previous time steps. The model compares very well with new data provided here for droplets on a rotating disk and liquid slug flow in microchannel. The simulation reveals that the contact angle distribution along the slug profile in the microchannel flow can be approximated using a piecewise linear function. This study indicates that the asymmetric distribution of the contact angle might be responsible for several phenomena observed in the microchannel experiments, including slug instability.     

Ethanol–CO2 two-phase flow in diverging and converging microchannels

The present study investigates experimentally two-phase flow patterns and pressure drop of ethanol and CO₂ in a converging or diverging rectangular microchannel. The two-phase flow pattern visualization is made possible using a high speed video camera. The increased superficial gas velocity due to the acceleration effect and the large pressure drop in a converging channel may result in the elongation of bubbles in slug flow, while the decreased superficial velocity owing to the deceleration effect and the possible pressure rise in the diverging channel may cause shortening of bubbles in slug flow significantly. For both types of channel, the collision and merger of two consecutive bubbles may take place and result in necking of bubbles. Two-phase flow pressure drop in the converging microchannel increases approximately linearly with the increasing liquid or gas flow rate with the frictional pressure drop being the major contributor to the channel pressure drop. In the diverging microchannel, the deceleration effect results in the pressure rise and counteracts the frictional pressure drop. Consequently, for low liquid flow rates the channel pressure drop increases only slightly with the gas flow rate while it is low and a reversed trend appears while it is high. For high liquid flow rates the effect of increasing gas flow rate on channel pressure drop is much more significant; a more significant reverse trend of the effect of gas flow rate is present in the region of high gas flow rates. The two-phase frictional multiplier in the converging or diverging microchannel is quite insensitive to the liquid flow rate and can be fitted very well within ±15% based on the Lockhart–Martinelli equation with a modified Chisholm parameter for the diverging microchannel and together with a modified coefficient for the X⁻² term for the converging microchannel.