Two-phase flow patterns and size distribution of droplets in a microfluidic T-junction: Experimental observations in the squeezing regime

Yassine Mahdi; Kamel Daoud; Lounès Tadrist

doi:10.1016/j.crme.2017.02.001

Two-phase flow patterns and size distribution of droplets in a microfluidic T-junction: Experimental observations in the squeezing regime

Yassine Mahdi ^1,² ; Kamel Daoud ¹; Lounès Tadrist ²

¹ University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Process Engineering, Laboratory of transfer phenomena, BP 32 Bab Ezzouar, 16111 Algiers, Algeria
² Aix-Marseille Université, Laboratoire IUSTI, CNRS UMR 7343, 13453 Marseille cedex 13, France

Comptes Rendus. Mécanique, Volume 345 (2017) no. 4, pp. 259-270.

Abstract

Generating micrometer sized droplets has been studied in a microfluidic system with T-junction geometry 250 μm in internal diameter and with PTFE capillary tubing. Several experiments were conducted by varying the flow rate of the dispersed phase from $2.78 \cdot 10^{- 11} m^{3} / s$ to $5.28 \cdot 10^{- 9} m^{3} / s$ and that of the continuous phase from $2.78 \cdot 10^{- 10} m^{3} / s$ to $1.94 \cdot 10^{- 9} m^{3} / s$ . The visualization of different flow regimes (drop, plug, and annular) was carried out for three configurations (not inverted in a horizontal position, inverted in a horizontal position, and inverted in a vertical position) for low capillary numbers. The model of Gauss was also chosen for a droplet size distribution in the dispersed phase, with the flow quality x varying from 0.016 to 0.44. The evolution of the drop size distribution as a function of the flow quality in the dispersed phase shows that the variation coefficient of the droplet's diameter is inversely proportional to the flow quality.

Received: 2016-08-16
Accepted: 2017-02-06
Published online: 2017-02-21

DOI: 10.1016/j.crme.2017.02.001

Keywords: Microfluidics, Two-phase flow patterns, T-junction, Coefficient of variation, Size distribution

Author's affiliations:

Yassine Mahdi ^{1, 2}; Kamel Daoud ¹; Lounès Tadrist ²

¹ University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Process Engineering, Laboratory of transfer phenomena, BP 32 Bab Ezzouar, 16111 Algiers, Algeria
² Aix-Marseille Université, Laboratoire IUSTI, CNRS UMR 7343, 13453 Marseille cedex 13, France

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     author = {Yassine Mahdi and Kamel Daoud and Loun\`es Tadrist},
     title = {Two-phase flow patterns and size distribution of droplets in a microfluidic {T-junction:} {Experimental} observations in the squeezing regime},
     journal = {Comptes Rendus. M\'ecanique},
     pages = {259--270},
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     language = {en},
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Yassine Mahdi; Kamel Daoud; Lounès Tadrist. Two-phase flow patterns and size distribution of droplets in a microfluidic T-junction: Experimental observations in the squeezing regime. Comptes Rendus. Mécanique, Volume 345 (2017) no. 4, pp. 259-270. doi : 10.1016/j.crme.2017.02.001. https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/mecanique/articles/10.1016/j.crme.2017.02.001/

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