Article from Fluent News • Spring 2006
MULTIPHASE
Controlling Droplet
Size Distribution
acking Emulsions in
putational cells depending on the
er modeled, and they required up
worth of CPU time on a high speed
uster.
mulations compared the heater with
burners to the heater with the new
ere the new burners were simply
e same position as the original burn-
ts of this study indicated that, while
burner design provided straight
new low NOx configuration resulted
t impinged on the tube surfaces.
ese results, an optimization study
as done to develop design modifica-
ould allow the ultra-low NOx burner
cceptably in the heater. These mod-
luded redirecting the angle of the
being injected through the ports in
ew burners and relocating the burn-
rnace floor to provide lateral spacing
he combusting gas could expand,
cing the tendency for the flames to
tubes. The modifications served to
e flames, making them more in line
the original burners. While the new
uces more diffuse flames than the
er design, it is much improved from
-low NOx design.
urner configuration, optimized by
en installed in the client’s furnace.
and run length have been excellent
x operation has been experienced.
was smooth and downtime was
dgement:
wish to acknowledge the cooperation
Zink Company in the low NOx burner
n CFD studies.
PROCESS INDUSTRIES
By L. Srinivasa Mohan, Fluent India, and Ahmad Haidari and Aniruddha Mukopadhyay, Fluent Inc.
Emulsions are an important class of materials pro- continuous phase flow
duced and handled by the chemical, food, phar-
maceutical, and cosmetic industries. They consist
of two immiscible liquids, one dispersed in the
other. The properties of an emulsion are based
dispersed phase flow
on the droplet size distribution (DSD) of the
dispersed phase. Because they are often thermo-
Schematic of the experimental setup [1]
dynamically metastable, there is a persistent
threat that the texture of the emulsion will be
altered during the course of preparation or pack-
aging, or during the subsequent shelf life. Many
processes over widely varying length scales could
cause the DSD to change, and it is important that
1.2E-7
volume of droplet (m3)
they be well understood so that the emulsion 1E-07
quality can be maintained. 8E-08
6E-08
For an ongoing project at Fluent, several aspects 4E-08
of droplet behavior have been studied using the 2E-08
volume of fluid (VOF) model. Some of the results 0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
have been compared to experiments that were time (s)
carried out on microfluidic devices, where a pre-
Volume of droplets produced at the T as a
cise droplet size distribution could be generated. function of time
For example, the generation of droplets at a
T-junction using two streams of immiscible liq-
uids has been simulated. Droplets of uniform size
were rapidly and reproducibly produced at the
junction as a result of the surface tension and the
shearing motion of the fluid in the main channel,
in agreement with measurements.
In another study, the geometrically mediated
breakup of droplets in a microfluidic device [2]
was simulated. By changing the length of the
arms of the T-junctions, the droplet can be split
into daughter droplets of unequal size. By using a
network of asymmetric T-junctions, emulsions of
a given DSD can be produced. Both 2D and 3D
simulations matched the qualitative and quanti-
tative aspects of the experiments, such as the size
of the daughter droplets for a given T-junction
and the critical parameters required for droplet
breakup as a function of capillary number.

Droplet breakup at a symmetric (left) and
an asymmetric (right) T-junction
References
1 Nisisako, T., Torri, T. and Higuchi, T.: Lab Chip. Vol
2, no 1. pp 24-26, 2002.
2 Link, D.R., Anna, S.L., Weitz, D.A. and Stone, H.A.:
Phy. Rev. Lett. Vol. 92, pp 1178-1180, 2004.
Fluent News · Spring 2006 S13
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