Experiments and computations of microfluidic liquid–liquid flow patterns

Desir, Pierre; Chen, Tai-Ying; Bracconi, Mauro; Saha, Basudeb; Maestri, Matteo; Vlachos, Dionisios G.

doi:10.1039/C9RE00332K

Experiments and computations of microfluidic liquid–liquid flow patterns

Journal Article · Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Reaction Chemistry & Engineering

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/C9RE00332K· OSTI ID:1642397

Desir, Pierre ^[1]; Chen, Tai-Ying ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[3]; ^[5]

Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States); University of Delaware
Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)
Laboratory of Catalysis and Catalytic Processes, Milano (Italy)
Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation, Newark DE (United States)
Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States); Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation, Newark DE (United States)

We study two-phase liquid–liquid flow patterns in a 500 μm capillary microchannel for four biphasic systems: ethyl acetate/water, 2-pentanol/water, methyl isobutyl ketone/water, and heptane/water. Flow visualization experiments using laser induced fluorescence (LIF) reveal a total of 7 different flow patterns for all solvent pairs, namely slug flow, droplet flow, slug-droplet flow, parallel, annular, dispersed, and irregular flow. A map of different flow patterns was built to delineate the origin of their formation. We find conventional dimensionless groups are insufficient to uniquely identify the flow patterns. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling in OpenFOAM shows agreement with the experimental flow patterns for most of the two-phase flows. Principal component analysis reduces the dimensionality of potential descriptors of flow patterns and, unlike prior work using two dimensionless numbers, determines six important features that describe >95% of the variance of the experimental flow patterns. These include the total flow rate, the flow rate ratio between the two phases, the capillary and Ohnesorge numbers of the aqueous phase, and the Weber number and velocity of the organic phase. Lastly, we build a decision-tree model to further regress the data and identify the critical features and demonstrate an accuracy in predicting the flow patterns of up to 93%.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: RAPID Manufacturing Institute, New York, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Advanced Manufacturing Office

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0007888

OSTI ID:: 1642397

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1569773

Journal Information:: Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, Journal Name: Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 5; ISSN RCEEBW; ISSN 2058-9883

Publisher:: Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (61)

A Continuous-Flow Microcapillary Reactor for the Preparation of a Size Series of CdSe Nanocrystals Yen, B. K. H.; Stott, N. E.; Jensen, K. F. Advanced Materials, Vol. 15, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.200305162	journal	November 2003
ANN-based prediction of two-phase gas- liquid flow patterns in a circular conduit Sharma, H.; Das, G.; Samanta, A. N. AIChE Journal, Vol. 52, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.10922	journal	September 2006
Liquid-liquid two-phase flow patterns in a rectangular microchannel Zhao, Yuchao; Chen, Guangwen; Yuan, Quan AIChE Journal, Vol. 52, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.11029	journal	January 2006
Data science: Accelerating innovation and discovery in chemical engineering Beck, David A. C.; Carothers, James M.; Subramanian, Venkat R. AIChE Journal, Vol. 62, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.15192	journal	February 2016
Kinetic study of hydrogen peroxide decomposition at high temperatures and concentrations in two capillary microreactors Shang, Minjing; Noël, Timothy; Su, Yuanhai AIChE Journal, Vol. 63, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.15385	journal	July 2016
Numerical Study on Bubble Formation of a Gas-Liquid Flow in a T-Junction Microchannel Dai, L.; Cai, W.; Xin, F. Chemical Engineering & Technology, Vol. 32, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1002/ceat.200900351	journal	December 2009
Continuous Micro Liquid-Liquid Extraction Assmann, N.; Ładosz, A.; Rudolf von Rohr, P. Chemical Engineering & Technology, Vol. 36, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/ceat.201200557	journal	April 2013
Volume-of-Fluid Interface Tracking with Smoothed Surface Stress Methods for Three-Dimensional Flows Gueyffier, Denis; Li, Jie; Nadim, Ali Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 152, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1006/jcph.1998.6168	journal	July 1999
The Elements of Statistical Learning Hastie, Trevor; Friedman, Jerome; Tibshirani, Robert Springer Series in Statistics https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-21606-5	book	January 2001
The Elements of Statistical Learning Hastie, Trevor; Tibshirani, Robert; Friedman, Jerome Springer Series in Statistics https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-84858-7	book	January 2009
An Introduction to Statistical Learning James, Gareth; Witten, Daniela; Hastie, Trevor Springer Texts in Statistics https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1418-1	book	January 2021
An Introduction to Statistical Learning James, Gareth; Witten, Daniela; Hastie, Trevor Springer Texts in Statistics https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7138-7	book	January 2013
The Elements of Statistical Learning Hastie, Trevor; Tibshirani, Robert; Friedman, Jerome Springer Series in Statistics https://doi.org/10.1007/b94608	book	January 2009
HER2 Molecular Marker Scoring Using Transfer Learning and Decision Level Fusion Tewary, Suman; Mukhopadhyay, Sudipta Journal of Digital Imaging, Vol. 34, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-021-00442-5	journal	March 2021
Volume of fluid (VOF) method for the dynamics of free boundaries Hirt, C. W.; Nichols, B. D. Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 39, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(81)90145-5	journal	January 1981
A continuum method for modeling surface tension Brackbill, J. U.; Kothe, D. B.; Zemach, C. Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 100, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(92)90240-Y	journal	June 1992
Size control of calcium alginate beads containing living cells using micro-nozzle array Sugiura, Shinji; Oda, Tatsuya; Izumida, Yasuhiko Biomaterials, Vol. 26, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2004.08.029	journal	June 2005
Hydrodynamics of liquid–liquid slug flow capillary microreactor: Flow regimes, slug size and pressure drop Kashid, Madhvanand N.; Agar, David W. Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol. 131, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2006.11.020	journal	July 2007
Effect of channel size on mass transfer during liquid–liquid plug flow in small scale extractors Tsaoulidis, Dimitrios; Angeli, Panagiota Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol. 262 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2014.10.012	journal	February 2015
Flow patterns of immiscible liquid-liquid flow in a rectangular microchannel with T-junction Yagodnitsyna, Anna A.; Kovalev, Alexander V.; Bilsky, Artur V. Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol. 303 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2016.06.023	journal	November 2016
Advanced neural network prediction and system identification of liquid-liquid flow patterns in circular microchannels with varying angle of confluence Nandagopal, M. S. Giri; Abraham, Eldho; Selvaraju, N. Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol. 309 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2016.10.106	journal	February 2017
Effective interfacial area for mass transfer in the liquid–liquid slug flow capillary microreactors Ghaini, A.; Kashid, M. N.; Agar, D. W. Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification, Vol. 49, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2010.03.009	journal	April 2010
Experimental investigation of liquid–liquid mixing in T-shaped micro-mixers using μ-LIF and μ-PIV Hoffmann, Marko; Schlüter, Michael; Räbiger, Norbert Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 61, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2005.11.029	journal	May 2006
Numerical study on gas and liquid slugs for Taylor flow in a T-junction microchannel Qian, Dongying; Lawal, Adeniyi Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 61, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2006.08.073	journal	December 2006
Liquid–liquid two-phase flow patterns and mass transfer characteristics in rectangular glass microreactors Dessimoz, Anne-Laure; Cavin, Laurent; Renken, Albert Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 63, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2008.05.005	journal	August 2008
Two-phase microfluidic flows Zhao, Chun-Xia; Middelberg, Anton P. J. Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 66, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2010.08.038	journal	April 2011
Hydrodynamic studies of liquid–liquid slug flows in circular microchannels Ghaini, Aras; Mescher, Axel; Agar, David W. Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 66, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2010.12.033	journal	March 2011
Scalability of mass transfer in liquid–liquid flow Woitalka, A.; Kuhn, S.; Jensen, K. F. Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 116 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2014.04.036	journal	September 2014
Simulations and analysis of multiphase transport and reaction in segmented flow microreactors Yang, Lu; Nieves-Remacha, Maria Jose; Jensen, Klavs F. Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 169 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2016.12.003	journal	September 2017
Random Forests for mapping and analysis of microkinetics models Partopour, Behnam; Paffenroth, Randy C.; Dixon, Anthony G. Computers & Chemical Engineering, Vol. 115 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compchemeng.2018.04.019	journal	July 2018
Benchmark numerical simulations of segmented two-phase flows in microchannels using the Volume of Fluid method Hoang, Duong A.; van Steijn, Volkert; Portela, Luis M. Computers & Fluids, Vol. 86 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compfluid.2013.06.024	journal	November 2013
Flow patterns and pressure drop of ionic liquid–water two-phase flows in microchannels Tsaoulidis, Dimitrios; Dore, Valentina; Angeli, Panagiota International Journal of Multiphase Flow, Vol. 54 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseflow.2013.02.002	journal	September 2013
A systematic analysis of performance measures for classification tasks Sokolova, Marina; Lapalme, Guy Information Processing & Management, Vol. 45, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2009.03.002	journal	July 2009
Interfacial stabilization of organic–aqueous two-phase microflows for a miniaturized DNA extraction module Reddy, Varun; Zahn, Jeffrey D. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol. 286, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2004.12.052	journal	June 2005
Transition from squeezing to dripping in a microfluidic T-shaped junction De Menech, M.; Garstecki, P.; Jousse, F. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 595 https://doi.org/10.1017/S002211200700910X	journal	January 2008
On-Chip Integration of Neutral Ionophore-Based Ion Pair Extraction Reaction Hisamoto, Hideaki; Horiuchi, Takayuki; Tokeshi, Manabu Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 73, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1021/ac001271v	journal	March 2001
Microfluidic Droplet-Based Liquid−Liquid Extraction Mary, Pascaline; Studer, Vincent; Tabeling, Patrick Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 80, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1021/ac800088s	journal	April 2008
OpenFOAM Computational Fluid Dynamic Simulations of Two-Phase Flow and Mass Transfer in an Advanced-Flow Reactor Nieves-Remacha, María José; Yang, Lu; Jensen, Klavs F. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 54, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.5b00480	journal	June 2015
Prediction of Liquid–Liquid Flow Patterns in a Y-Junction Circular Microchannel Using Advanced Neural Network Techniques Giri Nandagopal, M. S.; Selvaraju, N. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 55, Issue 43 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.6b02438	journal	October 2016
Continuous 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Production from Monosaccharides in a Microreactor Muranaka, Yosuke; Nakagawa, Hiroyuki; Masaki, Rie Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 56, Issue 39 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.7b02017	journal	September 2017
Liquid–Liquid Two-Phase Flow Patterns in Y-Junction Microchannels Darekar, Mayur; Singh, Krishna Kumar; Mukhopadhyay, Sulekha Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 56, Issue 42 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.7b03164	journal	October 2017
Initial Interfacial Tension for Various Organic–Water Systems and Study of the Effect of Solute Concentration and Temperature Shahid, Muhammad Zubair; Usman, Muhammad Rashid; Akram, Muhammad Sarfraz Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data, Vol. 62, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jced.6b00703	journal	March 2017
Liquid−Liquid Slug Flow in a Capillary: An Alternative to Suspended Drop or Film Contactors Kashid, M. N.; Harshe, Y. M.; Agar, D. W. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 46, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1021/ie070077x	journal	December 2007
Liquid–Liquid Flow in a Capillary Microreactor: Hydrodynamic Flow Patterns and Extraction Performance Jovanović, Jovan; Rebrov, Evgeny V.; Nijhuis, T. A. (Xander) Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 51, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1021/ie200715m	journal	June 2011
Membrane-Based, Liquid–Liquid Separator with Integrated Pressure Control Adamo, Andrea; Heider, Patrick L.; Weeranoppanant, Nopphon Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 52, Issue 31 https://doi.org/10.1021/ie401180t	journal	July 2013
Interfacial Tension of Alkane + Water Systems ^† Zeppieri, Susana; Rodríguez, Jhosgre; López de Ramos, A. L. Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data, Vol. 46, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1021/je000245r	journal	September 2001
Optimization of probiotic therapeutics using machine learning in an artificial human gastrointestinal tract Westfall, Susan; Carracci, Francesca; Estill, Molly Scientific Reports, Vol. 11, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79947-y	journal	January 2021
Liquid–liquid microflow reaction engineering Wang, Kai; Li, Liantang; Xie, Pei Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, Vol. 2, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1039/C7RE00082K	journal	January 2017
Micro wet analysis system using multi-phase laminar flows in three-dimensional microchannel networkElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: illustration and microscopic view of two-phase laminar flow. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/lc/b4/b400233d/ Kikutani, Yoshikuni; Hisamoto, Hideaki; Tokeshi, Manabu Lab on a Chip, Vol. 4, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1039/b400233d	journal	January 2004
Formation of droplets and bubbles in a microfluidic T-junction—scaling and mechanism of break-up Garstecki, Piotr; Fuerstman, Michael J.; Stone, Howard A. Lab on a Chip, Vol. 6, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1039/b510841a	journal	January 2006
Formation of dispersions using “flow focusing” in microchannels Anna, Shelley L.; Bontoux, Nathalie; Stone, Howard A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 82, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1537519	journal	January 2003
A tensorial approach to computational continuum mechanics using object-oriented techniques Weller, H. G.; Tabor, G.; Jasak, H. Computers in Physics, Vol. 12, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.168744	journal	January 1998
Volume-of-fluid simulations in microfluidic T-junction devices: Influence of viscosity ratio on droplet size Nekouei, Mehdi; Vanapalli, Siva A. Physics of Fluids, Vol. 29, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4978801	journal	March 2017
Process Intensification of Biodiesel Production Using a Tubular Micro-Reactor (TMR): Experimental and Numerical Assessment López-Guajardo, Enrique; Ortiz-Nadal, Enrique; Montesinos-Castellanos, Alejandro Chemical Engineering Communications, Vol. 204, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1080/00986445.2016.1277521	journal	December 2016
Distribution of Methyl red on the Water–Organic Liquid Interface in a Microchannel Surmeian, Mariana; Hibara, A.; Slyadnev, M. Analytical Letters, Vol. 34, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1081/AL-100104916	journal	June 2001
Microfluidic methods for generating continuous droplet streams Christopher, G. F.; Anna, S. L. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 40, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/40/19/R01	journal	September 2007
Drop impact onto a liquid layer of finite thickness: Dynamics of the cavity evolution Berberović, Edin; van Hinsberg, Nils P.; Jakirlić, Suad Physical Review E, Vol. 79, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.79.036306	journal	March 2009
An Integrated Nanoliter DNA Analysis Device Burns, M. A. Science, Vol. 282, Issue 5388 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.282.5388.484	journal	October 1998
Formation of dispersions using ‘‘flow focusing’’ in microchannels Anna, Shelley; Bontoux, Nathalie; Stone, Howard A. Carnegie Mellon University https://doi.org/10.1184/r1/6466991	text	January 2003
Formation of dispersions using ‘‘flow focusing’’ in microchannels Anna, Shelley; Bontoux, Nathalie; Stone, Howard A. Carnegie Mellon University https://doi.org/10.1184/r1/6466991.v1	text	January 2003
Volume-of-fluid simulations in microfluidic T-junction devices: Influence of viscosity ratio on droplet size Nekouei, Mehdi; Vanapalli, Siva A. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1703.00937	text	January 2017

Similar Records

Liquid–Liquid Microfluidic Flows for Ultrafast 5-Hydroxymethyl Furfural Extraction

Journal Article · Mon Feb 22 19:00:00 EST 2021 · Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research · OSTI ID:2007312

ANALYSIS OF GAS-LIQUID FLOW PATTERNS

Technical Report · Wed Oct 31 23:00:00 EST 1962 · OSTI ID:4742587

Experimental study of inverted-annular-flow hydrodynamics utilizing an adiabatic simulation. [PWR; BWR]

Technical Report · Mon Feb 28 23:00:00 EST 1983 · OSTI ID:5935883

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Biomass
computational fluid dynamics
flow pattern
laser induced fluorescence
machine learning
two-phase flow

Experiments and computations of microfluidic liquid–liquid flow patterns

Citation Formats

References (61)

Similar Records

Related Subjects