Study on the mechanism of droplet formation in T-junction microchannel

Li, Xiaobin; Li, Feng‐Chen; Yang, Juan-Cheng; Kinoshita, Haruyuki; Oishi, Masamichi; Oshima, Masaharu

doi:10.1016/j.ces.2011.10.048

Cited by 170 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 50 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…But it could be deduced that Q up increased drastically during this stage. In the squeezing stage, the blockage of the liquid leads to an increase of pressure (O(10 2 ) Pa) in the liquid upstream 14,37 and the average Q up is much less than Q L . In the filling stage, when the bubble neck pinches off, the accumulated pressure is suddenly released and instaneous Q up reaches its maximum value of 2.1Q L .…”

Section: Methodology For Quantification Of the Leakage Flowmentioning

confidence: 98%

On the leakage flow around gas bubbles in slug flow in a microchannel

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The leakage flow is that liquid does not push gas bubbles and leaks through the channel corners. This leakage flow was confirmed by tracking particles moving in the liquid film with a double light path method and was quantified by tracking the gas-liquid interface movement. The results show that leakage flow varies during bubble formation process. The average net leakage flow Q net-leak in a bubble formation cycle at T-junction can be as large as 62.4% of the feeding liquid flow rate, depending on the liquid properties. Q net-leak for regular flow at main channel is much smaller, ranging from about 0 to 30% of the feeding liquid flow rate. The difference between the two leakage flows would lead to an increase in liquid slug length after generation. Finally, the effects of parameters such as phase flow rates, surface tension, and viscosity were investigated.

show abstract

Section: Methodology For Quantification Of the Leakage Flowmentioning

confidence: 98%

On the leakage flow around gas bubbles in slug flow in a microchannel

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…When the front of the dispersed phase fluid intrudes into the main channel, a pressure drop occurs between the front and rear of the emerging droplet. The droplet grows under the balance of pressure, interfacial tension and shearing force until the neck at the rear becomes thin enough-and the pressure low enough-to break into a small droplet [84]. In practice, the T-junction creates slugs of droplets in the exiting channel with a minimal length of twice the channel width, or larger if the pressure in the dispersed phase channel is increased.…”

Section: Co-flowmentioning

confidence: 99%

Droplet Manipulations in Two Phase Flow Microfluidics

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Even though droplet microfluidics has been developed since the early 1980s, the number of applications that have resulted in commercial products is still relatively small. This is partly due to an ongoing maturation and integration of existing methods, but possibly also because of the emergence of new techniques, whose potential has not been fully realized. This review summarizes the currently existing techniques for manipulating droplets in two-phase flow microfluidics. Specifically, very recent developments like the use of acoustic waves, magnetic fields, surface energy wells, and electrostatic traps and rails are discussed. The physical principles are explained, and (potential) advantages and drawbacks of different methods in the sense of versatility, flexibility, tunability and durability are discussed, where possible, per technique and per droplet operation: generation, transport, sorting, coalescence and splitting.

show abstract

“…Simulations of microfluidic droplet formation in this cross-flow T-junction were carried out by Bashir et al 7 using two-phase level-set method, and the effect of surface wettability on droplet length was taken into account. Numerical studies on pressure drop and droplet formation mechanisms were made by Yan et al 8 and Li et al 9 Yamamoto and Ogata's 10,11 experiments show that two-phase flow in small T-junction is quite unstable when flow rate ratios are extremely high or low. Chen et al 12 analyzed the process of the bubble generation in T-junction with both Newton and non-Newton fluids experimentally and numerically and achieved the description of the bubble breakup mechanism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative analysis of gas–liquid flow in T-junction microchannels with different inlet orientations

Liu

Ling

Peng

2016

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this study, a comparative analysis of two-phase flow in T-junction microchannels with different inlet orientations was carried out. Based on computational fluid dynamics and the volume-of-fluid model, bubble size, bubble velocities, and pressure distributions were analyzed. The numerical algorithm was validated with the experimental observations from former literatures; the results show that when the capillary number, Ca, is low, the length of gas and liquid slug in the symmetric T-junction is higher than that in the cross-flow T-junction. The effect of different forces acting on the slugs during the process of bubble formation was studied by investigating the velocity gradient and pressure distribution in the mixing zone. The result shows that the shear stress in cross-flow T-junction is over two times of that in T-junction with two symmetric inlets under the same operating conditions, which indicates that the size of bubble and liquid slug depends on the shear stress at low Ca number.

show abstract

Study on the mechanism of droplet formation in T-junction microchannel

Cited by 170 publications

References 50 publications

On the leakage flow around gas bubbles in slug flow in a microchannel

On the leakage flow around gas bubbles in slug flow in a microchannel

Droplet Manipulations in Two Phase Flow Microfluidics

Comparative analysis of gas–liquid flow in T-junction microchannels with different inlet orientations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About