Premium
Alternating flow of immiscible liquids in microchannel
Author(s) -
Matsuno Hiroki,
Hirano Hiroyuki,
Nakagawa Tomohiro,
Wang Xian,
Okamoto Naotaka
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.633
Subject(s) - microchannel , surface tension , phase (matter) , flow (mathematics) , chemistry , cyclohexane , capillary action , bromide , materials science , analytical chemistry (journal) , chromatography , thermodynamics , mechanics , nanotechnology , composite material , physics , organic chemistry
This article is an experimental study of the alternating flow of immiscible liquids in a microchannel. The two‐phase flow system of water and cyclohexane was adopted. The flow was visualized by the use of the color dyes, and the segment length was measured to investigate the aspect of the alternating flow. Furthermore, the four kinds of surfactants (sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), n‐heptyl‐β‐D‐thioglucoside, and n‐nonanoyl‐N‐methyl‐D‐glucamine (MEGA‐9)) were dissolved into the water phase to change the fluid properties, and the effect of the fluid properties on the aspect of the alternating flow was studied. The alternating flow was also visualized with the use of the Mach–Zehnder interferometer to observe the detailed aspect of the segments of each phase. As a result, it was concluded that the fluid properties are quite uniform, and there seems no prominent internal flow inside each segment. In addition, the segment length decreases with the increase of the fluid velocity and the decrease of the channel width and the interfacial tension between the two phases. After all, the segment length or the aspect ratio of the segment could be correlated well with the Capillary (Ca) number from Ca = 0.0001 to 0.0015. © 2011 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.