Two-phase flow patterns investigation in large aspect ratio microchannel with T-mixer

Abstract

Two-phase flows in microchannels have a wide range of applications in various fields of science and technology (cooling of electronic equipment, microfluidics, micromixers, etc.). Two-phase flows in microchannels with characteristic sizes on the order of 10 μm and below becomes an important object of study due to new effects that are realized on this scale. In this work, we study a two-phase flow in a slit microchannel 10 μm height and 10 mm wide, where the liquid was injected coaxially to the two-phase flow and the gas was injected perpendicular to the two-phase flow. The realized flow patterns (Jets and Jet-Droplet, Churn and Droplet-Annular) and their boundaries are determined and described. The mechanisms of liquid jets amount evolution are shown and described. The flow pattern maps have been compared with ones for phase input inversion. The influence of the mixer on the boundaries of flow patterns is described.