Elsevier Editorial System(tm) for Chemical Engineering Science Manuscript Draft Manuscript Number: CES-D-10-01155R1 Title: The effect

of surface tension on phase distribution of two-phase flow in a micro-T-junction Article Type: Regular Article Keywords: Phase distribution Momentum transfer Multiphase flow Micro-T-junction Visualisation Interface Corresponding Author: Professor Shuangfeng Wang, Ph.D Corresponding Author's Institution: South China University Of Technology First Author: Kui He, Master Order of Authors: Kui He, Master; Shuangfeng Wang, Ph.D; Jianzhen Huang, Bachelor Abstract: An experimental investigation has been conducted to study the effect of surface tension on phase distribution of gas-liquid two-phase ow through a T-junction with diameters 0.5mm. It is found the decrease of liquid surface tension make the liquid taken off reduce in side branch while inlet flow pattern is slug flow, slug-annular and annular flow, respectively. These results highlight phase distribution is remarkably influenced by surface tension in micro-T-junction. The surface tension contributes positively to turning liquid stream into side branch. High surface tension seems to make the liquid capture more kinetic energy from the gas and dissipate it in form of vortexes. It is suggested that phase distribution can be controlled by adjusting liquid surface tension in micro-T-junction.

Cover Letter

Dear editor: Enclosed is a manuscript by Kui He, Shuangfeng Wang, and Jianzhen Huang, titled The effect of surface tension on phase distribution of two-phase flow in a micro-T-junction. In this paper, we report an experiment showing how surface tension affects phase distribution feature in a micro-T-junction with diameter 500m. It is submitted to be considered for publication as a "regular paper" in your journal. We certify that we have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the appropriateness of the experimental design and method, and the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data. We have reviewed the final version of the manuscript and approve it for publication. To the best of our knowledge and belief, this manuscript has not been published in whole or in part nor is it being considered for publication elsewhere. We believe the paper may be of particular interest to the readers of your journal. Correspondence and phone calls about the paper should be directed to Shuangfeng Wang at the following address, phone, and e-mail address: Shuangfeng Wang Institute: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering South China University of Technology Address: 381 Wushan street Guangzhou, China Tel+86-20-22236929 E-mailsfwang@scut.edu.cn Thanks very much for your attention. Sincerely yours, Shuangfeng Wang

*Response to Reviews

Dear Editor: Thank you for your great support. We have answered on all of the referees comments in the revised manuscript. All of the changes are marked in red. This letter also includes point-by-point answers to those comments. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely Yours,
Shuangfeng Wang

Response to the reviewer 1: 1. The Introduction part needs to be re-organized or re-written. There are number of grammar errors. More importantly, I did not see many applications related to current work, and any similar studies have been done so far in the literature review? Answer: The Introduction part has been re-written as following structure:
Widely existing two-phase flow in micro-channel application Micro-T-junction is a special micro-channel

Potential application of micro-T-junction

Application of T-junction

Phase maldistribution feature in T-junction

Special phase distribution feature of micro-T-junction due to increased effect of surface tension in micro-channel

The necessity to do the research

Schematic diagram of instruction part structure The question what the goal is, how they conducted the experiments, what their accomplishments are, and how well they compared other people's work has been. answered in instruction. Grammar errors have been corrected. 2. I could not understand how the author got Figs. 4, 7 & 10. At one flow condition for one pair of fluids, you can only get one data point. How could you get 7 or more points? Answer: The phase distribution is evaluated by measuring the gas and liquid which takes off from the side arm (gas taken off and liquid taken off). Researchers need to know how many liquid takes off from the side arm at certain gas taken off. The gas taken off can be adjusted by the valve in the downstream. So at each gas taken off, we get a liquid taken off. For each data point, the inlet flow condition is fixed. The gas taken off and liquid taken off are defined as following:

Gas taken off

Gas mass flow of side branch Gas mass flow of i n l e t Liquid mass flow of side branch Liquid mass flow of i n l e t

(1)

Liquid taken off

(2)

This definition has been adopted by many researchers (Wren et al., 2005, Wang et al., 2011, Azzopardi, 1994). All of relative description has been added into the instruction. 3. No A, B, C, D is on Fig. 5 & Fig. 9. Answer: The A, B, C, D is used to label the observed flow structure. There is no A, B, C, D on the Fig. 5 & Fig. 9, because they are corresponding to Fig. 4 and Fig. 7. In order to avoid any misunderstanding, the A, B, C, D has been labeled on the Fig. 5 & Fig. 9. 4. What is the difference between Fig. 6A & Fig. 6B? Answer: The Fig. 6A & Fig. 6B is used to show the difference of gas-liquid interface at high surface tension and low surface tension when the inlet phase velocities are fixed. A more typical picture at condition D has been used to substitute the Fig.6B. In order to keep it consistent with the label A, B, C, D on Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, Fig. 6 A and Fig.6B has been changed to Fig. 6 A and Fig.6D in the revised paper.

A: Liquid surface tension=71.8Nm/m

D: Liquid surface tension=29.3Nm/m

Fig. 6. Pictures of slug flow at different surface tension.

5. Fig. 8C is not clear. What is the difference between Fig. 8B & Fig. 8D? Answer: Fig. 8C is a long liquid bridge which cannot be shown in one picture. It has been substituted by a shorter liquid bridge. Comparing with Fig.8B, Fig.8D is gotten at higher surface tension liquid (pure water). However, they are both classified as ring-shaped liquid film or wavy liquid film in Figs.9, so the Fig.8D has been deleted. In order to keep it consistent with the label A, B, C, D on Fig. 7 and Fig. 9, Fig. 8 A, B, C, D have been changed to Fig. 8 A1, B1, A2, A3 in the revised paper. The 1, 2, 3 stand for three different sub flow pattern observed under this condition. 6. On Fig. 7 caption, I do not understand the terminology of "ring-shaped liquid". Answer: The terminology of ring-shaped liquid is named as throat-annular flow by Sira Saisorn et al., 2010, or ring-shaped liquid film by Kawahara et al., 2002 and Fouilland et al., 2010. The terminology is to describe a special wavy liquid film in microchannel, the shape of which looks like a ring. In the revised paper, the terminology ring-shaped liquid film is uniformly adopted. .

Response to the reviewer 2: The question on dynamic surface tension features (DST) of SDS in the micro-channel is a valuable comment. There are two important factors as the reviewer mentioned: characteristic time for diffusion, Td and characteristic time for creation of new surface, Ts. We find out the Td of water/interface data in [6] (because the Addison, C.C. (1945) is very old, it is unavailable on our database. However, there are lots of literature addressing the problem.), as shown in Fig.1. Our mol concentrations of SDS solutions are 0.17, 2.47, and 8.7mmol/L respectively. The Td is in the range of 10-500s. While, Ts is not a fixed value for different flow pattern. For the slug and annular flow, as it is shown in Fig.2 and Fig.4, the slug interface of water and gas keeps quasi-static, so the Ts is very large (>10s). So the surface tension of the slug interface is almost equal to the equilibrium values (steady state surface tension). For the slug-annular flow, there are big wave disturbance traveling along the liquid base flow so that the interface is refreshed frequently. According to the results of picture analysis, the Ts is in the range of 10ms-100ms (dependent on the wave frequency). Based on the above analysis, the slug-annular flow is influenced by the DST more outstanding than other two flow patterns. It is also indicated from the phase split results. In the phase split curves of slug-annular flow, most data point overlap together between the gas taken offs 0.2-0.7, indicating the surface tension has slightly effect on phase distribution on phase split. While, at high gas taken off, the effect of surface tension seems to appear. This is because at high gas taken off, the liquid film is slowed down near the inlet of T-junction and therefore, the surface tension difference between four solutions is increased due to greatly reduced interface refresh frequency. This problem has been addressed clearly in the paper in section 3.5.

Fig.1 Dynamic surface tension of SDS solutions at various concentrations.

A2: VG=12.7m/s, VL=0.14m/s, pure water

Fig.2 Slug flow.

A1Ring-shaped liquid film at surface tension 71.8mN/m

A3: VG=12.7m/s, VL=0.14m/s, pure water Fig. 8. Liquid behavior at different surface tension.

Fig. 4. Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug flow.

Fig. 7. Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug-annular flow.

Fig.10 Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of annular flow.

We have checked through the particle and corrected grammar errors at the greatest extent. The following is answer point by point to reviewer 2. The reference of Azzi et al has been listed in the references. 1. Abstract line 2 replace "diameter" with "diameters". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 2. P2 Introduction line 1 replaces "strongly attracted researchers' concern" with "attracted the attention of researchers". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 3. P2 line 4 remove "and" from before "etc". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 4. P3 line 3 replace "researches" with "research". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 5. P3 line 6 replace "scaled into" with "of". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 6. P3 line 7 replace" Till now, most researches focus" with "Until now, most research has focussed". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 7. P3 line 8 replace "Such as" with "For example". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 8. P3 line 10 replace" a certain" with "particular". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 9. P3 line 11 insert "et al." after" Serizawa". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 10. P4 Experimental setup line 2 replace "made and smoothed in PMMA (Polymethyl methacrylate)" with "manufactured from PMMA (Polymethyl methacrylate) and finished with a smooth inner surface".

Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 11. P4 line 3 replace "get" with "facilitate. "P4 line 6 replace "compressed" with "introduced" and insert "pressurised" between "a" and "gas". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 12. P4 line 8 replace "pushed into" with "supplied to". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 13. P4 line 9 replace "being" with "are". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 14. P5 line 5 replaces "The property was shown in table 1" with "The physical properties of the liquid are listed in Table 1". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments. 15. P6 line 2 replace "(described by A. Azzi, 2010)" with ", as described by Azzi et al. (2010)". Answer: It has been corrected according to the comments.

Reference Azzopardi, B.J., 1994. The split of vertical annular ow at a large diameter T-junction. International Journal of Multiphase Flow 20, 10711083. Fainerman, V.B., Lylyka, S.V., Aksenenkob, E.V., Petkovc, J.T., Yorkec, J., R. Millerd, 2008. Surface tension isotherms, adsorption dynamics and dilational visco-elasticity of sodium dodecyl sulphate solutions. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 354, 815. Kawahara, A., Chung, P.M.-Y., Kawaji, M., 2002. Investigation of two-phase flow pattern, void fraction and pressure drop in a microchannel. Int. J. Multiphase Flow 28, 14111435. Fouilland, T.S., Fletcher, D.F., Haynes, B.S., 2010. Film and slug behaviour in intermittent slugannular microchannel flows. Chemical Engineering Science 65, 5344-5355. Saisorna S., Wongwises. S., 2010. The effects of channel diameter on flow pattern, void fraction and pressure drop of two-phase air-water flow in circular micro-channels 34, 454-462. Wren, E., Baker, G., Azzopardi, B.J., Jones., R., 2005. Slug flow in small diameter pipes and T-junctions. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 29, 893899. Wang, S.F., He, K., Huang, J.Z., 2011. Phase splitting of a slugannular ow at a horizontal micro-T-junction 54, 589-596.

Graphical Abstract

Graphical Abstract
1.0
Pure water A 0.005% SDS B 0.01% SDS C 0.025% SDS D VG=2.2m/s, VL=0.35m/s

Fraction of Liquid Taken Off

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0 0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

Fraction of Gas Taken Off

Effect of surface tension on phase split of slug flow

The surface tension contributes positively to turning liquid stream into side branch. High surface tension seems to make the liquid capture more kinetic energy from the gas and dissipate it in form of vortexes. These results highlight phase distribution is remarkably influenced by surface tension in micro-T-junction.

Highlights

Highlights
This is a paper by Kui He, Shuangfeng Wang, and Jianzhen Huang, titled The effect of surface tension on phase distribution of two-phase flow in a micro-T-junction. The paper report an experiment showing how surface tension affects phase distribution feature in a micro-T-junction with diameter 500m. It highlights at following points: 1. The small scale of the junction (0.5 mm). 2. The fact that the effect of surface tension is studied. We have reviewed the final version of the manuscript and approve it for publication. To the best of our knowledge and belief, this manuscript has not been published in whole or in part nor is it being considered for publication elsewhere. We believe the paper may be of particular interest to the readers of your journal.

*Marked Revision Click here to view linked References

The effect of surface tension on phase distribution of two-phase flow in a micro-T-junction

Kui He, Shuangfeng Wang*, Jianzhen Huang *Corresponding author: Prof. S.F. Wang E-mail address: sfwang@scut.edu.cn Tel.: +86-20-22236929

Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation of the Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China

Abstract An experimental investigation has been conducted to study the effect of surface tension on phase distribution of gasliquid two-phase ow through a T-junction with diameters 0.5mm. It is found the decrease of liquid surface tension make the liquid taken off reduce in side branch while inlet flow pattern is slug flow, slug-annular and annular flow, respectively. These results highlight phase distribution is remarkably influenced by surface tension in micro-T-junction. The surface tension contributes positively to turning liquid stream into side branch. High surface tension seems to make the liquid capture more kinetic energy from the gas and dissipate it in form of vortexes. It is suggested that phase distribution can be controlled by adjusting liquid surface tension in micro-T-junction. Keywords: Phase distribution Momentum transfer Multiphase flow Micro-T-junction Visualisation Interface

1. Introduction Recently, the behavior of two-phase flow in micro-channels has attracted the attention of researchers because of its wide applicability in modern and advanced science and technologies, such as, electronic cooling, chemical process engineering, medical and genetic engineering, bioengineering etc. As a special form micro-channel, the T-type micro-channel (also known as micro-T-junction) also widely exists in many kinds of compacted mechanical systems. For instance, headers in compacted parallel micro heat exchangers are consist of many micro-T-junctions (Li et al., 2010). When two-phase flow comes into a T-junction, the liquid and gas will show different preferential route. It is also known as uneven phase distribution in T-junctions (Stacey et al., 2000; Wang et al., 2003; Das et al., 2005; Wren et al., 2005). Researchers need to know how many liquid takes off from the side arm at certain gas taken off. At some
2

conditions, 80% of the gas preferentially taken off from side branch, while only 30% of the liquid taken off the side branch (Stacey et al., 2000). The phase distribution is usually evaluated by measuring the gas and liquid which takes off from the side arm (gas taken off and liquid taken off). From the phase distribution curves they plotted, the greatest maldistribution can be judged. This route preference of either gas or liquid is of both advantages and disadvantages (Azzopardi, 1994). For heat exchangers, phase maldistibution is harmful. Because some of the tubes are lack of liquid due to phase maldistribution, the local heat transfer will be deteriorated. Whether it is disadvantageous in compacted micro heat exchangers needs to study. However, phase maldistribution feature of the T-junction can be also made used of. In industry, one successful reported application is a partial separator made of several T-junctions (Azzopardi et al., 2002). Comparing to current vessel separators, this kind of separator are compacted, cheap and can reduce the load on the downstream vessel separator. Thus, the volume and weight of downstream vessel separator can be reduced greatly, which is very important in some squeezed space, such as the offshore platform. Based on those background, previous research has been done on normal sized T-junctions (diameters>5mm). In recent years, the development of compacted chemical plant calls for more research on the two-phase distribution in micro-T-junction. For instance, the products produced by multiphase monolith reactors (Kreutzer et al., 2005) need to be separated, and thus this kind of compacted and simple phase separator is still a potential choice. The phase separator requires the maldistribution of gas and liquid is bigger enough.
3

However, phase distribution feature in micro-T-junctions are still poorly understood. The study of Shoham et al. (1987) revealed that phase distribution at T-junction was strongly dependent on inlet flow pattern. Further Research (Kawaji et al., 1997; Jong, 2003; Sen, 2010; Bousman et al., 1996) showed that flow pattern was influenced by inertia force, gas shear stress, gravity, surface tension etc. The significance of each force will be different for macro-T-junctions and micro-T-junctions. When the T-junction is of microns size, effects of surface tension on two-phase flow will increase (Serizawa et al., 2002). Until now, most research has focused on the effect of surface tension on behavior of two-phase flow in straight micro-channels (Qian and Lawal, 2006; Serizawa et al., 2002.). The only two reports about phase distribution in micro-T-junctions are Azzi et al. (2010) and Wang et al. (2011). Azzi et al. (2010) studied the phase distribution feature of slug flow in a T-junction with diameters 1mm. They found phase distribution feature of slug flow in T-junction was independent on size of T-junction. Wang et al. (2011) studied phase distribution of slug-annular flow at a micro-T-junction with diameters 0.5mm. It was found the liquid taken off decreased as an increase in liquid superficial velocity, while it increased as an increase in gas superficial velocity. Based on visualized experiment they suggested phase distribution features depend on the appearing possibility of three sub-flow patterns. According to their research, the maldistribution of slug-annular flow is not obviously compared to results in macro-T-junctions, and therefore it is not a good candidate of phase separator. By contrast, it is relatively suitable to be a phase even distributor in heat exchangers. The research indicates that surface tension has
4

great impact on phase distribution. However, the effect of surface tension was not examined quantitatively in previous work. Therefore, present work arms to investigate the effect of surface tension on phase distribution of two-phase flow at a micro-T-junction in detail. When inlet flows of the micro-T-junction are slug flow, slug-annular flow and annular flow, effect of surface tension on phase distribution is clarified by quantitative experiments through changing working fluid, respectively. 2. Experimental setup Experiments were conducted on a two-phase, T-junction loop shown schematically in Fig. 1. The test T-junction with inner diameter 500 m was manufactured from PMMA (Polymethyl methacrylate) and finished with a smooth inner surface to facilitate visualization. The test T-junction had three equal branches and each is 30mm long. There were inlet, main branch, and side branch (shown in Fig. 2.). The gas phase, nitrogen was introduced into the mixer by a pressurized gas tank and the inlet gas flow rate was controlled by a mass flow controller and a pressure transducer was inserted near the inlet of the test T-junction. The liquid was supplied to the mixer by a syringe pump. After the gas and liquid were mixed, the two-phase flow was transported through a long tube with diameter 1mm and flowed into the test T-junction. The side and main branches of the T-junction were connected to separators by flexible tubes. In order to measure how many liquid takes off from the side arm at certain gas taken off, the experiments were carried out by setting the inlet ow rates using a MFC(CMQ-V9500, Yamatake corporation, Japan) and the division of the gas ow
5

was controlled by electromagnetic valves in MFCs (CMQ-V9500, Yamatake corporation, Japan) on the outlet pipes. The outlet liquid flow rates at side branch and main branch were determined by using an electronic balance (BS124S, Sartorius, German) and electronic watch. Two bubble meters as described by Azzi et al. (2010) were used to monitor the accurate operation of two mass flow controllers at low gas velocity and to check leakages of the system. By calculation, the fraction of gas taken off and the fraction of liquid taken off could be obtained based on following formulas:
Gas mass flow rate of side branch Gas mass flow rate of i n l e t Liquid mass flow rate of side branch Liquid taken off Liquid mass flow rate of i n l e t Gas taken off

(1) (2)

In present experiment, SDS (Sodium dodecylsulfate, Guangdong Guanghua Chemical Factory Co., LTD.) was used to decrease surface tension. SDS was a powerful surfactant which decreased the surface tension to 29.3 mN/m without affecting other liquid properties when used in low concentrations (0.1 wt.%). All solutions were prepared in Milli-Q water. Pure water, 0.005 wt.% SDS, 0.01 wt.% SDS and 0.025 wt.% SDS solutions in 25 were selected as the liquid phase. The SDS had purity higher than 95%. After the four solutions deposited for 24h, the surface tension of the liquid was measured on a

Dynamic Contact Angle Meter and Tensiometer (DCAT21, Dataphysics, Germany). The viscosity was measured by a viscometer (BROOKFIELD, DV III, American). The four kinds of liquid solution were labeled as A, B, C and D. The physical properties of the liquid are listed in Table 1. The visualization of the ow pattern was realized through a Leica DMI 3000B
6

inverted microscope, which was positioned above the horizontal testing T-junction. The view field was magnified by attaching a 5X microscope objective lens (from Leica Corporation). A high speed video camera (American Fastec corporation, model Troubleshooter HR) was connected to the microscope by C-mount 0.63X. The behavior of the two-phase flow was recorded by this high-speed video camera. The pictures were taken at different inlet conditions at 1000 frames per second and at a shutter speed of 1/10,000s, with a resolution of 256 (V)1024 (H) pixels. In order to investigate the effect of surface tension on phase distribution of different flow pattern, referring to flow map of Chung and Kawaji (2004), three VG (inlet gas superficial velocity) and VL (inlet liquid superficial velocity) pairs were investigated. They were (2.2m/s, 0.35m/s), (12.7m/s, 0.14 m/s) and (15.2m/s, 0.028m/s), respectively. The inlet pressure was kept at 125kpa. For each point, mass balances were carried out between the inlet and outlet ows. The balances were all within 3.5% for the liquid and 8.3% for the gas. Some measurements were ignored when the mass balances with errors was greater than this. Measurements for all conditions were repeated till no appreciable difference was found between the two experiments when error was within the limited stated above. The uncertainties of the measuring techniques have been estimated as: DCAT21 tensiometer0.1%; viscometer1.0%; balance0.1%; bubble meter3.0%; MFCs (0-500sccm)1.0%F.S; syringe pump2.0% F.S.

Fig.1. Schematic diagram of the experiment apparatus: (1) Syringe pump (2) Mixer (3) Gas tank 7

(4) Pressure transducer (5) Microscope (6) Test T-junction (7) MFCs (8) Bubble meters (9) Separators (10) Electronic balance. Fig.2. Test T-junction.

Table 1 Physical properties of liquid used in the experiment (at 25).

3. Results and discussion 3.1 The observed flow patterns at the inlet of the T-junction The inlet flow patterns observed in the experiments were slug flow, slug-annular flow and annular flow, respectively. The decrease of surface tension of the liquid phase did not bring a fundamental change in flow pattern. In order to verify the observed ow pattern during experiments, the experimental data had been plotted on the ow pattern map of Chung and Kawaji (2004) (in Fig. 3). Their flow map was developed from experiments in a horizontal micro-junction with diameter 0.53mm, which was very close to the T-junction with diameter 0.5mm in the present work.
Fig.3. Flow pattern of Chung and Kawaji (2004) showing condition at which data for phase distribution at the micro-T-junction have been obtained.

3.2 The effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug flow The effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug flow in the T-junction is shown in Fig.4. The most part of the phase distribution curves locate in the gas rich region. As the surface tension decreases from 71.8mN/m to 29.3mN/m, the liquid taken off reduces. Shoham et al. (1987) suggested phase distribution is highly dependent on inlet flow pattern. Though the inlet flow pattern is observed as slug flow (VL=0.35m/s, VG=2.2m/s), the detailed structure of the flows is different. Therefore, it is necessary to know what happens in flow structure when the liquid surface tension is changed. As well known, the slug flow is characteristic as alternative slugs of liquid and gas. By counting the number of images containing gas and liquid slugs, the probability of appearance of the gas and liquid slug is determined, such as from the
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following expression:

liquid slug

Number of liquid slug images 500

(3)

Where the 500 is the number of pictures counted, is the probability of appearance. The flow pattern statistical result is presented in Fig. 5. As the surface tension decreases, the appearance probability of liquid slug increases, indicating the liquid slug length becomes shorter. This observation is supported by Qian and Lawal (2006). They found the liquid slug length slightly decreased with the decrease of surface tension by CFD study on slug flow formation in micro-T-junctions. As it is seen in Fig. 6A and D, the liquid-gas interface is sharper at low surface tension. Taitel (1996) also found similar phenomenon near the Taylor bubble nose. This illustrates the liquid is easier to be pierced and separated by gas at low surface tension. Furthermore, the liquid slug travels faster at low surface tension, illustrating it has bigger momentum, which makes liquid prefer to the main branch.
Fig. 4. Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug flow. Fig. 5. Effect of surface tension on probability of the appearance of gas and liquid slug. A: Liquid surface tension=71.8Nm/m D: Liquid surface tension=29.3Nm/m Fig. 6. Pictures of slug flow at different surface tension.

3.3 The effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug-annular flow While the inlet flow is slug-annular flow, the effect of surface tension on phase distribution is depicted in Fig.7. The phase distribution curves take on a transition from liquid rich region (in the side arm) to gas rich region. The increase of liquid surface tension makes more liquid taken off at high gas taken offs (>0.5). The observation at the inlet flow pattern shows the liquid interface is more flat at
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low surface tension than that at high surface tension (seen in Fig. 8A1, B1). Wang et al. (2010) provided visualization experimental result on three sub-patterns. Three kinds of sub-patterns (shown in Fig.8B1, A2, A3) were categorized as liquid bridge, wavy film and smooth film in their research. The categorization can classify the liquid film based on different liquid velocity, i.e., different liquid momentum. The momentum of liquid bridge, wavy liquid film and smooth liquid film at certain inlet condition is sorted in descending order as: liquid bridgewavy liquid filmsmooth liquid film. Then the appearing probability of each sub-pattern is statistical studied. The method is also used in present work. The probability of appearance of liquid bridge, wavy liquid film and smooth film at the inlet of the T-junction, is given in Fig.9. It is shown the flow structure is changed by decreasing surface tension. The liquid bridge and wavy liquid film appear more frequently at low surface tension. Because the liquid bridge and wavy liquid film has larger momentum, they prefer to the main branch. Therefore, the liquid taken off is shown smaller at low surface tension.
Fig. 7. Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug-annular flow.

A1Ring-shaped liquid film at surface tension 71.8mN/m

B1Ring-shaped liquid film at surface tension 46.2mN/m

A2: VG=12.7m/s, VL=0.14m/s, pure water A3: VG=12.7m/s, VL=0.14m/s, pure water Fig. 8. Liquid behavior at different surface tension.

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Fig. 9. Effect of surface tension on probability of of three sub-flow patterns.

3.4 The effect of surface tension on phase distribution of annular flow When the inlet flow pattern is annular flow, the effect of surface tension on phase distribution is shown Fig.10. As the surface tension of liquid increases, liquid taken off increases. Comparing to slug-annular flow and slug flow, phase distribution curves of annular flow move to liquid rich region. It is interesting that some of the data (between gas taken off 0.4~0.6) located just beside the even phase distribution line after the surface tension of liquid is decreased to 46.2Nm/m. It is beneficial in some case. For instance, in the header (containing lots of T-junctions) of some compact heat exchangers, if phase is evenly distributed in each branch tube, the performance of the heat exchanger will be improved. The reason why the liquid preferentially flow into side arm at high surface tension will be explained in detail in section 3.6.
Fig.10 Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of annular flow.

3.5 The dynamic surface tension (DST) of the liquid. Lots of research (Fainerman et al., 2008; Yohko, 2002) show the instantaneous local value of surface tension is near that of the pure solvent due to the fast refresh of new surface. Our mol concentrations of SDS solutions are 0.17, 2.47, and 8.7mmol/L respectively. According to the data by Fainerman et al. (2008), the Td of SDS is in the range of 10-500s. While, Ts is not a fixed value for different flow pattern. For the slug and annular flow, as it is shown in Fig.8A2 and Fig.8A3, the interface of water and gas keeps quasi-static, therefore the Ts is very large (>10s). The surface tension of the interface is almost equal to the equilibrium values at the two flow patterns. For the slug-annular flow, there are big wave disturbance traveling along the liquid base flow so that the interface is refreshed frequently. According to the results of picture
11

analysis, the Ts is in the range of 10ms-100ms. Based on the above analysis, the slug-annular flow is influenced by the DST more outstanding than other two flow patterns. It is also indicated from the phase distribution results. In the phase distribution curves of slug-annular flow, most data point overlap together between the gas taken offs 0.2-0.7, indicating the phase distribution is slightly effected by liquids with small surface tension difference. While, at high gas taken off, the DST decreases. This is because at high gas taken off, the liquid film is slowed down near the inlet of T-junction and therefore, the surface tension difference between four solutions is increased due to greatly reduced interface refresh frequency. Therefore, it is shown bigger gap at phase distribution data at high gas taken off. 3.6 Mechanism of surface tension affecting on phase distribution in the T-junction How surface tension affects the phase distribution? A research by Zhang et al. (2001) reveals that surface tension can make the ow kinetic energy decrease rapidly. Part of this energy is transformed into surface potential energy. The majority of the contribution of surface tension to kinetic energy evolution is negative. In the observation of present experiment, as shown in Fig.8, the interface of the ring-shaped wave in slug-annular flow is more flat at low surface tension than that at high surface tension. By comparison, the high surface tension can sustain a thicker liquid film, which can trap more kinetic energy in the liquid. The behavior of kinetic energy dissipation by surface tension can be observed from the film stop. The sketch of film stop (Roberts et al., 1997) of annular flow at low surface tension condition and high surface tension condition is shown in Figs. 11. The interface of film stop at high surface tension is sharper than that at low surface tension. In the sharper interface, vortexes are easier to form and spread, which dissipate more
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kinetic energy of the liquid. The liquid stream is slowed down at this region and redistributed into the side branch. Therefore, the liquid taken off is increased at high surface tension in the micro-T-junction can be expected. The impact of surface tension on phase distribution can be also indicated from Fig. 12, in which the phase distribution data of annular flow in the micro-T-junction is compared with that in macro-T-junctions. There is an obvious trend of increase in liquid taken off, as the diameter of T-junction decreases. It is suggested that the annular flow in micro-junction contain few liquid entrainments (drops). The liquid drops with large momentum flux preferentially flow straightly into the main branch of the T-junction. Azzopardi and Memory (1989) gave an explanation for their study that the decrease of liquid ow rate decreased the amount of entrainment, which would then increase the level of liquid at the wall lm. Since the liquid taken off in the side arm comes from the wall lm, an increase in the fraction of liquid taken off is expected. Surface tension plays similar role in increasing the wall film. At the microns sized T-junction, most liquid is trapped in liquid film, and the liquid taken off is increased in the micro-T-junction can be explained. The phase distribution is highly dependent on competition of gas and liquid momentum flux, which is also suggested by many researchers (Shoham et al., 1987; Azzopardi , 1989; Roberts et al., 1997). The liquid drops are pinched from the liquid interface wave (Azzopardi, 1997). In micro-junction, because the diameter is small, the surface tension becomes dominant and it consumes more energy to pinch the liquid from the film. As a result, high surface tension prevents the kinetic energy
13

being transferred from gas to liquid, which increases the liquid taken off. Thus, it is suggested that surface tension affect the phase distribution through influencing the kinetic evolution between gas and liquid.

AFilm stop at high surface tension

BFilm stop at low surface tension Fig. 11. The sketches of film stop at high surface tension and low surface tension.

Fig. 12. Comparison of present data with phase distribution data from different diameters by present study. Diameter=0.5mm, gas superficial velocity=15.2m/s, liquid superficial velocity = 0.028m/s. by T. Stacey et al. (2000), diameter=5mm, gas superficial velocity=15m/s, liquid superficial velocity = 0.19 m/s by Buell et al. (1994): diameter = 38 mm; gas superficial velocity = 11 m/s, liquid superficial velocity = 0.18 m/s.

4. Conclusion An experimental investigation has been conducted to study the effect of surface tension on phase distribution of gasliquid two-phase ow through a T-junction with diameter 0.5mm. From the experimental data presented, the following can be concluded: 1. When inlet flow pattern is slug flow, decreasing liquid surface tension makes liquid taken off decrease. The major parts of phase distribution curves are located in gas rich region. 2. When inlet flow pattern is slug-annular flow, decreasing liquid surface tension makes liquid taken off decrease at high gas taken off (>0.5). The major parts of phase distribution curves are located near the even phase distribution line. 3. When inlet flow pattern is annular flow, decreasing liquid surface tension makes liquid taken off decrease at liquid rich region and the liquid taken off is larger in a micro-T-junction than that in a macro-T-junction. These results highlight the phase distribution is remarkably influenced by the surface tension at a micro-T-channel. Liquid surface tension in micro-channel
14

determines momentum transfer between gas and liquid. When the surface tension is higher, the liquid ow kinetic energy is decreased rapidly through the T-junction. High surface tension seems to make the liquid capture more kinetic energy from the gas and dissipate it in form of vortexes. If the positive impact of surface tension on liquid stream flowing into side branch is intensified by increasing liquid surface tension, it will make the liquid taken off increase.

Acknowledgments The authors thank for the financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No.50876033) NSFC-United Fund of Guangdong Province (Granted No.U0834002) and Guangdong Provincial International

Cooperation Funding (Granted No.2009B050400002).

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References
Azzopardi, B.J., 1989. The split of annular-mist ows at vertical and horizontal Ts. In: Proc. 8th Int Conf. On Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering. The Hague, Netherlands, 1923 March, ASME. Azzopardi, B.J., Memory, S.B., 1989. The split of two-phase ow at a horizontal T-annular and stratied ow. In: 4th Int. Conf. on Multi-phase Flow, Nice, France, 1921 June (Pub. BHRA). Azzopardi, B.J., 1994. The split of vertical annular ow at a large diameter T-junction. International Journal of Multiphase Flow 20, 10711083. Azzopardi, B.J., 1997. International Journal of Multiphase Flow. Vol. 23, Suppl., pp. 1-53, 1997. Azzi, A., Al-Attiyah, A., Liu, Q., Cheema, W., Azzopardi, B.J., 2010. Gasliquid two-phase flow division at a micro-T-junction. Chemical Engineering Science 65, 39863993. Buell, J.R., Soliman, H.M., Sims, G.E., 1994. Two-phase pressure drop and phase distribution at a horizontal tee junction. International Journal of Multiphase Flow 20, 819836. Bousman, W. S. , Mcquillen, J. B. , Witte, L. C.,1996. Gas-liquid flow patterns in microgravity: effects of tube diameter, liquid viscosity and surface tension. International Journal of Multiphase Flow 22, 1035-1053. Chung, P.M.-Y., Kawaji, M., 2004. The effect of channel diameter on adiabatic two-phase flow characteristics in microchannels. International Journal of Multiphase Flow 30, 735761. Das, G., Das, P.K., Azzopardi, B.J., 2005. The split of stratied gasliquid ow at a small diameter T-junction. International Journal of Multiphase Flow 31, 514528. Fainerman, V. B., Lylyka, S.V., Aksenenkob, E.V., Petkovc, J.T., Yorkec, J., R. Millerd, 2008. Surface tension isotherms, adsorption dynamics and dilational visco-elasticity of sodium dodecyl sulphate solutions. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 354, 815. Jong, P.D., Gabriel, K.S., 2003. A preliminary study of two-phase annular ow at microgravity: experimental data of lm thickness. International Journal of Multiphase Flow 2 ,12031220. Kreutzer, M. T., Kapteijna, F., Moulijna, J. A., Heiszwolf, J. J., 2005. Multiphasemonolith reactors: 16

Chemical reaction engineering of segmented ow in microchannels. Chemical Engineering Science 60, 5895-5916. Kawaji, M., DeJesus, J.M., Tudose, G., 1997. Investigation of ow structures in vertical slug ow. Nuclear Engineering and Design 175, 3748. Li, J., Wang, S.F., Cai, W., Zhang, W.J., 2010. Numerical study on air-side performance of an integrated fin and micro-channel heat exchanger. Applied Thermal Engineering 30, 2738-2745. Qian, D., Lawal A., 2006. Numerical study on gas and liquid slugs for Taylor ow in a T-junction microchannel. Chemical Engineering Science 61, 7609 7625. Roberts, P.A., Azzopardi, B.J., Hibberd, S., 1997. The split of horizontal annular flow. Chemical Engineering Science 52, 3441-3453. Sen, N., 2010. Two-phase slug-to-annular ow pattern transition in microgravity. Astronautica 66, 13731377. Stacey, T., Azzopardi, B.J., Conte, G., 2000. The split of annular two-phase flow at a small diameter T-Junction. International Journal of Multiphase Flow 26, 845-856. Serizawa, A., Feng, Z., Kawara, Z., 2002. Two-phase ow in microchannels. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 26, 703714. Shoham, O., Brill, P., Taitel, Y., 1987. Two-phase ow splitting in a tee junction experiment and modelling. Chemical Engineering Science 42, 26672676. Taitel, Y., 1996. The role of surface tension in microgravity slug flow. Chemical Engineering Science 51, 695-700. Wren, E., Baker, G., Azzopardi, B.J., Jones., R., 2005. Slug flow in small diameter pipes and T-junctions. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 29, 893899. Wang, S.F., Mosdorf, R., Shoji, M., 2003. Nonlinear analysis on fluctuation feature of two-phase flow through a T-junction. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 46, 15191528. Wang, S.F., He, K., Huang, J.Z., 2011. Phase splitting of a slugannular ow at a horizontal micro-T-junction 54, 589-596. Yohko, F. Y., 2002. Surface structure of aqueous 2-butoxyethanol mixtures studied by x-ray reection. Journal of Chemical Physics 116, 18. Zhang, R., He X., Doolen, G., Chen, S., 2001. Surface tension effects on two-dimensional two-phase Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. Advances in Water Resources 24, 461-478. 17 Acta

Figure captions:
Fig.1. Schematic diagram of the experiment apparatus: (1) Syringe pump (2) Mixer (3) Gas tank (4) Pressure transducer (5) Microscope (6) Test T-junction (7) MFCs (8) Bubble meter (9) Separator (10) Electronic balance. Fig. 2. Test T-junction. Fig.3. Flow pattern of Chung and Kawaji (2004) showing condition at which data for phase distribution at the micro-T-junction have been obtained. Fig. 4. Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug flow. Fig. 5. Effect of surface tension on probability of the appearance of gas and liquid slug. A: Liquid surface tension=71.8Nm/m D: Liquid surface tension=29.3Nm/m Fig. 6. Pictures of slug flow at different surface tension. Fig. 7. Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug-annular flow. A1Ring-shaped liquid film at surface tension 71.8mN/m B1Ring-shaped liquid film at surface tension 46.2mN/m A2: VG=12.7m/s, VL=0.14m/s, pure water A3: VG=12.7m/s, VL=0.14m/s, pure water Fig. 8. Liquid behavior at different surface tension. Fig. 9. Effect of surface tension on probability of of three sub-flow pattern. Fig.10. Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of annular flow. Fig. 11. The sketches of film stop at high surface tension and low surface tension. AFilm stop at high surface tension BFilm stop at low surface tension Fig. 12. Comparison of present data with phase distribution data from different diameters by present study. Diameter=0.5mm, gas superficial velocity=15.2m/s, liquid superficial 18

velocity = 0.028m/s. by T. Stacey et al. (2000), diameter=5mm, gas superficial velocity=15m/s, liquid superficial velocity = 0.19 m/s by Buell et al. (1994): diameter = 38 mm; gas superficial velocity = 11 m/s, liquid superficial velocity = 0.18 m/s.

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*Manuscript Click here to view linked References

The effect of surface tension on phase distribution of two-phase flow in a micro-T-junction

Kui He, Shuangfeng Wang*, Jianzhen Huang *Corresponding author: Prof. S.F. Wang E-mail address: sfwang@scut.edu.cn Tel.: +86-20-22236929

Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation of the Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China

Abstract An experimental investigation has been conducted to study the effect of surface tension on phase distribution of gasliquid two-phase ow through a T-junction with diameters 0.5mm. It is found the decrease of liquid surface tension make the liquid taken off reduce in side branch while inlet flow pattern is slug flow, slug-annular and annular flow, respectively. These results highlight phase distribution is remarkably influenced by surface tension in micro-T-junction. The surface tension contributes positively to turning liquid stream into side branch. High surface tension seems to make the liquid capture more kinetic energy from the gas and dissipate it in form of vortexes. It is suggested that phase distribution can be controlled by adjusting liquid surface tension in micro-T-junction. Keywords: Phase distribution Momentum transfer Multiphase flow Micro-T-junction Visualisation Interface

1. Introduction Recently, the behavior of two-phase flow in micro-channels has attracted the attention of researchers because of its wide applicability in modern and advanced science and technologies, such as, electronic cooling, chemical process engineering, medical and genetic engineering, bioengineering etc. As a special form micro-channel, the T-type micro-channel (also known as micro-T-junction) also widely exists in many kinds of compacted mechanical systems. For instance, headers in compacted parallel micro heat exchangers are consist of many micro-T-junctions (Li et al., 2010). When two-phase flow comes into a T-junction, the liquid and gas will show different preferential route. It is also known as uneven phase distribution in T-junctions (Stacey et al., 2000; Wang et al., 2003; Das et al., 2005; Wren et al., 2005). Researchers need to know how many liquid takes off from the side arm at certain gas taken off. At some
2

conditions, 80% of the gas preferentially taken off from side branch, while only 30% of the liquid taken off the side branch (Stacey et al., 2000). The phase distribution is usually evaluated by measuring the gas and liquid which takes off from the side arm (gas taken off and liquid taken off). From the phase distribution curves they plotted, the greatest maldistribution can be judged. This route preference of either gas or liquid is of both advantages and disadvantages (Azzopardi, 1994). For heat exchangers, phase maldistibution is harmful. Because some of the tubes are lack of liquid due to phase maldistribution, the local heat transfer will be deteriorated. Whether it is disadvantageous in compacted micro heat exchangers needs to study. However, phase maldistribution feature of the T-junction can be also made used of. In industry, one successful reported application is a partial separator made of several T-junctions (Azzopardi et al., 2002). Comparing to current vessel separators, this kind of separator are compacted, cheap and can reduce the load on the downstream vessel separator. Thus, the volume and weight of downstream vessel separator can be reduced greatly, which is very important in some squeezed space, such as the offshore platform. Based on those background, previous research has been done on normal sized T-junctions (diameters>5mm). In recent years, the development of compacted chemical plant calls for more research on the two-phase distribution in micro-T-junction. For instance, the products produced by multiphase monolith reactors (Kreutzer et al., 2005) need to be separated, and thus this kind of compacted and simple phase separator is still a potential choice. The phase separator requires the maldistribution of gas and liquid is bigger enough.
3

However, phase distribution feature in micro-T-junctions are still poorly understood. The study of Shoham et al. (1987) revealed that phase distribution at T-junction was strongly dependent on inlet flow pattern. Further Research (Kawaji et al., 1997; Jong, 2003; Sen, 2010; Bousman et al., 1996) showed that flow pattern was influenced by inertia force, gas shear stress, gravity, surface tension etc. The significance of each force will be different for macro-T-junctions and micro-T-junctions. When the T-junction is of microns size, effects of surface tension on two-phase flow will increase (Serizawa et al., 2002). Until now, most research has focused on the effect of surface tension on behavior of two-phase flow in straight micro-channels (Qian and Lawal, 2006; Serizawa et al., 2002.). The only two reports about phase distribution in micro-T-junctions are Azzi et al. (2010) and Wang et al. (2011). Azzi et al. (2010) studied the phase distribution feature of slug flow in a T-junction with diameters 1mm. They found phase distribution feature of slug flow in T-junction was independent on size of T-junction. Wang et al. (2011) studied phase distribution of slug-annular flow at a micro-T-junction with diameters 0.5mm. It was found the liquid taken off decreased as an increase in liquid superficial velocity, while it increased as an increase in gas superficial velocity. Based on visualized experiment they suggested phase distribution features depend on the appearing possibility of three sub-flow patterns. According to their research, the maldistribution of slug-annular flow is not obviously compared to results in macro-T-junctions, and therefore it is not a good candidate of phase separator. By contrast, it is relatively suitable to be a phase even distributor in heat exchangers. The research indicates that surface tension has
4

great impact on phase distribution. However, the effect of surface tension was not examined quantitatively in previous work. Therefore, present work arms to investigate the effect of surface tension on phase distribution of two-phase flow at a micro-T-junction in detail. When inlet flows of the micro-T-junction are slug flow, slug-annular flow and annular flow, effect of surface tension on phase distribution is clarified by quantitative experiments through changing working fluid, respectively. 2. Experimental setup Experiments were conducted on a two-phase, T-junction loop shown schematically in Fig. 1. The test T-junction with inner diameter 500 m was manufactured from PMMA (Polymethyl methacrylate) and finished with a smooth inner surface to facilitate visualization. The test T-junction had three equal branches and each is 30mm long. There were inlet, main branch, and side branch (shown in Fig. 2.). The gas phase, nitrogen was introduced into the mixer by a pressurized gas tank and the inlet gas flow rate was controlled by a mass flow controller and a pressure transducer was inserted near the inlet of the test T-junction. The liquid was supplied to the mixer by a syringe pump. After the gas and liquid were mixed, the two-phase flow was transported through a long tube with diameter 1mm and flowed into the test T-junction. The side and main branches of the T-junction were connected to separators by flexible tubes. In order to measure how many liquid takes off from the side arm at certain gas taken off, the experiments were carried out by setting the inlet ow rates using a MFC(CMQ-V9500, Yamatake corporation, Japan) and the division of the gas ow
5

was controlled by electromagnetic valves in MFCs (CMQ-V9500, Yamatake corporation, Japan) on the outlet pipes. The outlet liquid flow rates at side branch and main branch were determined by using an electronic balance (BS124S, Sartorius, German) and electronic watch. Two bubble meters as described by Azzi et al. (2010) were used to monitor the accurate operation of two mass flow controllers at low gas velocity and to check leakages of the system. By calculation, the fraction of gas taken off and the fraction of liquid taken off could be obtained based on following formulas:
Gas mass flow rate of side branch Gas mass flow rate of i n l e t Liquid mass flow rate of side branch Liquid taken off Liquid mass flow rate of i n l e t Gas taken off

(1) (2)

In present experiment, SDS (Sodium dodecylsulfate, Guangdong Guanghua Chemical Factory Co., LTD.) was used to decrease surface tension. SDS was a powerful surfactant which decreased the surface tension to 29.3 mN/m without affecting other liquid properties when used in low concentrations (0.1 wt.%). All solutions were prepared in Milli-Q water. Pure water, 0.005 wt.% SDS, 0.01 wt.% SDS and 0.025 wt.% SDS solutions in 25 were selected as the liquid phase. The SDS had purity higher than 95%. After the four solutions deposited for 24h, the surface tension of the liquid was measured on a

Dynamic Contact Angle Meter and Tensiometer (DCAT21, Dataphysics, Germany). The viscosity was measured by a viscometer (BROOKFIELD, DV III, American). The four kinds of liquid solution were labeled as A, B, C and D. The physical properties of the liquid are listed in Table 1. The visualization of the ow pattern was realized through a Leica DMI 3000B
6

inverted microscope, which was positioned above the horizontal testing T-junction. The view field was magnified by attaching a 5X microscope objective lens (from Leica Corporation). A high speed video camera (American Fastec corporation, model Troubleshooter HR) was connected to the microscope by C-mount 0.63X. The behavior of the two-phase flow was recorded by this high-speed video camera. The pictures were taken at different inlet conditions at 1000 frames per second and at a shutter speed of 1/10,000s, with a resolution of 256 (V)1024 (H) pixels. In order to investigate the effect of surface tension on phase distribution of different flow pattern, referring to flow map of Chung and Kawaji (2004), three VG (inlet gas superficial velocity) and VL (inlet liquid superficial velocity) pairs were investigated. They were (2.2m/s, 0.35m/s), (12.7m/s, 0.14 m/s) and (15.2m/s, 0.028m/s), respectively. The inlet pressure was kept at 125kpa. For each point, mass balances were carried out between the inlet and outlet ows. The balances were all within 3.5% for the liquid and 8.3% for the gas. Some measurements were ignored when the mass balances with errors was greater than this. Measurements for all conditions were repeated till no appreciable difference was found between the two experiments when error was within the limited stated above. The uncertainties of the measuring techniques have been estimated as: DCAT21 tensiometer0.1%; viscometer1.0%; balance0.1%; bubble meter3.0%; MFCs (0-500sccm)1.0%F.S; syringe pump2.0% F.S.

Fig.1. Schematic diagram of the experiment apparatus: (1) Syringe pump (2) Mixer (3) Gas tank 7

(4) Pressure transducer (5) Microscope (6) Test T-junction (7) MFCs (8) Bubble meters (9) Separators (10) Electronic balance. Fig.2. Test T-junction.

Table 1 Physical properties of liquid used in the experiment (at 25).

3. Results and discussion 3.1 The observed flow patterns at the inlet of the T-junction The inlet flow patterns observed in the experiments were slug flow, slug-annular flow and annular flow, respectively. The decrease of surface tension of the liquid phase did not bring a fundamental change in flow pattern. In order to verify the observed ow pattern during experiments, the experimental data had been plotted on the ow pattern map of Chung and Kawaji (2004) (in Fig. 3). Their flow map was developed from experiments in a horizontal micro-junction with diameter 0.53mm, which was very close to the T-junction with diameter 0.5mm in the present work.
Fig.3. Flow pattern of Chung and Kawaji (2004) showing condition at which data for phase distribution at the micro-T-junction have been obtained.

3.2 The effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug flow The effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug flow in the T-junction is shown in Fig.4. The most part of the phase distribution curves locate in the gas rich region. As the surface tension decreases from 71.8mN/m to 29.3mN/m, the liquid taken off reduces. Shoham et al. (1987) suggested phase distribution is highly dependent on inlet flow pattern. Though the inlet flow pattern is observed as slug flow (VL=0.35m/s, VG=2.2m/s), the detailed structure of the flows is different. Therefore, it is necessary to know what happens in flow structure when the liquid surface tension is changed. As well known, the slug flow is characteristic as alternative slugs of liquid and gas. By counting the number of images containing gas and liquid slugs, the probability of appearance of the gas and liquid slug is determined, such as from the
8

following expression:

liquid slug

Number of liquid slug images 500

(3)

Where the 500 is the number of pictures counted, is the probability of appearance. The flow pattern statistical result is presented in Fig. 5. As the surface tension decreases, the appearance probability of liquid slug increases, indicating the liquid slug length becomes shorter. This observation is supported by Qian and Lawal (2006). They found the liquid slug length slightly decreased with the decrease of surface tension by CFD study on slug flow formation in micro-T-junctions. As it is seen in Fig. 6A and D, the liquid-gas interface is sharper at low surface tension. Taitel (1996) also found similar phenomenon near the Taylor bubble nose. This illustrates the liquid is easier to be pierced and separated by gas at low surface tension. Furthermore, the liquid slug travels faster at low surface tension, illustrating it has bigger momentum, which makes liquid prefer to the main branch.
Fig. 4. Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug flow. Fig. 5. Effect of surface tension on probability of the appearance of gas and liquid slug. A: Liquid surface tension=71.8Nm/m D: Liquid surface tension=29.3Nm/m Fig. 6. Pictures of slug flow at different surface tension.

3.3 The effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug-annular flow While the inlet flow is slug-annular flow, the effect of surface tension on phase distribution is depicted in Fig.7. The phase distribution curves take on a transition from liquid rich region (in the side arm) to gas rich region. The increase of liquid surface tension makes more liquid taken off at high gas taken offs (>0.5). The observation at the inlet flow pattern shows the liquid interface is more flat at
9

low surface tension than that at high surface tension (seen in Fig. 8A1, B1). Wang et al. (2010) provided visualization experimental result on three sub-patterns. Three kinds of sub-patterns (shown in Fig.8B1, A2, A3) were categorized as liquid bridge, wavy film and smooth film in their research. The categorization can classify the liquid film based on different liquid velocity, i.e., different liquid momentum. The momentum of liquid bridge, wavy liquid film and smooth liquid film at certain inlet condition is sorted in descending order as: liquid bridgewavy liquid filmsmooth liquid film. Then the appearing probability of each sub-pattern is statistical studied. The method is also used in present work. The probability of appearance of liquid bridge, wavy liquid film and smooth film at the inlet of the T-junction, is given in Fig.9. It is shown the flow structure is changed by decreasing surface tension. The liquid bridge and wavy liquid film appear more frequently at low surface tension. Because the liquid bridge and wavy liquid film has larger momentum, they prefer to the main branch. Therefore, the liquid taken off is shown smaller at low surface tension.
Fig. 7. Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug-annular flow.

A1Ring-shaped liquid film at surface tension 71.8mN/m

B1Ring-shaped liquid film at surface tension 46.2mN/m

A2: VG=12.7m/s, VL=0.14m/s, pure water A3: VG=12.7m/s, VL=0.14m/s, pure water Fig. 8. Liquid behavior at different surface tension.

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Fig. 9. Effect of surface tension on probability of of three sub-flow patterns.

3.4 The effect of surface tension on phase distribution of annular flow When the inlet flow pattern is annular flow, the effect of surface tension on phase distribution is shown Fig.10. As the surface tension of liquid increases, liquid taken off increases. Comparing to slug-annular flow and slug flow, phase distribution curves of annular flow move to liquid rich region. It is interesting that some of the data (between gas taken off 0.4~0.6) located just beside the even phase distribution line after the surface tension of liquid is decreased to 46.2Nm/m. It is beneficial in some case. For instance, in the header (containing lots of T-junctions) of some compact heat exchangers, if phase is evenly distributed in each branch tube, the performance of the heat exchanger will be improved. The reason why the liquid preferentially flow into side arm at high surface tension will be explained in detail in section 3.6.
Fig.10 Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of annular flow.

3.5 The dynamic surface tension (DST) of the liquid. Lots of research (Fainerman et al., 2008; Yohko, 2002) show the instantaneous local value of surface tension is near that of the pure solvent due to the fast refresh of new surface. Our mol concentrations of SDS solutions are 0.17, 2.47, and 8.7mmol/L respectively. According to the data by Fainerman et al. (2008), the Td of SDS is in the range of 10-500s. While, Ts is not a fixed value for different flow pattern. For the slug and annular flow, as it is shown in Fig.8A2 and Fig.8A3, the interface of water and gas keeps quasi-static, therefore the Ts is very large (>10s). The surface tension of the interface is almost equal to the equilibrium values at the two flow patterns. For the slug-annular flow, there are big wave disturbance traveling along the liquid base flow so that the interface is refreshed frequently. According to the results of picture
11

analysis, the Ts is in the range of 10ms-100ms. Based on the above analysis, the slug-annular flow is influenced by the DST more outstanding than other two flow patterns. It is also indicated from the phase distribution results. In the phase distribution curves of slug-annular flow, most data point overlap together between the gas taken offs 0.2-0.7, indicating the phase distribution is slightly effected by liquids with small surface tension difference. While, at high gas taken off, the DST decreases. This is because at high gas taken off, the liquid film is slowed down near the inlet of T-junction and therefore, the surface tension difference between four solutions is increased due to greatly reduced interface refresh frequency. Therefore, it is shown bigger gap at phase distribution data at high gas taken off. 3.6 Mechanism of surface tension affecting on phase distribution in the T-junction How surface tension affects the phase distribution? A research by Zhang et al. (2001) reveals that surface tension can make the ow kinetic energy decrease rapidly. Part of this energy is transformed into surface potential energy. The majority of the contribution of surface tension to kinetic energy evolution is negative. In the observation of present experiment, as shown in Fig.8, the interface of the ring-shaped wave in slug-annular flow is more flat at low surface tension than that at high surface tension. By comparison, the high surface tension can sustain a thicker liquid film, which can trap more kinetic energy in the liquid. The behavior of kinetic energy dissipation by surface tension can be observed from the film stop. The sketch of film stop (Roberts et al., 1997) of annular flow at low surface tension condition and high surface tension condition is shown in Figs. 11. The interface of film stop at high surface tension is sharper than that at low surface tension. In the sharper interface, vortexes are easier to form and spread, which dissipate more
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kinetic energy of the liquid. The liquid stream is slowed down at this region and redistributed into the side branch. Therefore, the liquid taken off is increased at high surface tension in the micro-T-junction can be expected. The impact of surface tension on phase distribution can be also indicated from Fig. 12, in which the phase distribution data of annular flow in the micro-T-junction is compared with that in macro-T-junctions. There is an obvious trend of increase in liquid taken off, as the diameter of T-junction decreases. It is suggested that the annular flow in micro-junction contain few liquid entrainments (drops). The liquid drops with large momentum flux preferentially flow straightly into the main branch of the T-junction. Azzopardi and Memory (1989) gave an explanation for their study that the decrease of liquid ow rate decreased the amount of entrainment, which would then increase the level of liquid at the wall lm. Since the liquid taken off in the side arm comes from the wall lm, an increase in the fraction of liquid taken off is expected. Surface tension plays similar role in increasing the wall film. At the microns sized T-junction, most liquid is trapped in liquid film, and the liquid taken off is increased in the micro-T-junction can be explained. The phase distribution is highly dependent on competition of gas and liquid momentum flux, which is also suggested by many researchers(Shoham et al., 1987; Azzopardi , 1989; Roberts et al., 1997). The liquid drops are pinched from the liquid interface wave (Azzopardi, 1997). In micro-junction, because the diameter is small, the surface tension becomes dominant and it consumes more energy to pinch the liquid from the film. As a result, high surface tension prevents the kinetic energy
13

being transferred from gas to liquid, which increases the liquid taken off. Thus, it is suggested that surface tension affect the phase distribution through influencing the kinetic evolution between gas and liquid.

AFilm stop at high surface tension

BFilm stop at low surface tension Fig. 11. The sketches of film stop at high surface tension and low surface tension.

Fig. 12. Comparison of present data with phase distribution data from different diameters by present study. Diameter=0.5mm, gas superficial velocity=15.2m/s, liquid superficial velocity = 0.028m/s. by T. Stacey et al. (2000), diameter=5mm, gas superficial velocity=15m/s, liquid superficial velocity = 0.19 m/s by Buell et al. (1994): diameter = 38 mm; gas superficial velocity = 11 m/s, liquid superficial velocity = 0.18 m/s.

4. Conclusion An experimental investigation has been conducted to study the effect of surface tension on phase distribution of gasliquid two-phase ow through a T-junction with diameter 0.5mm. From the experimental data presented, the following can be concluded: 1. When inlet flow pattern is slug flow, decreasing liquid surface tension makes liquid taken off decrease. The major parts of phase distribution curves are located in gas rich region. 2. When inlet flow pattern is slug-annular flow, decreasing liquid surface tension makes liquid taken off decrease at high gas taken off (>0.5). The major parts of phase distribution curves are located near the even phase distribution line. 3. When inlet flow pattern is annular flow, decreasing liquid surface tension makes liquid taken off decrease at liquid rich region and the liquid taken off is larger in a micro-T-junction than that in a macro-T-junction. These results highlight the phase distribution is remarkably influenced by the surface tension at a micro-T-channel. Liquid surface tension in micro-channel
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determines momentum transfer between gas and liquid. When the surface tension is higher, the liquid ow kinetic energy is decreased rapidly through the T-junction. High surface tension seems to make the liquid capture more kinetic energy from the gas and dissipate it in form of vortexes. If the positive impact of surface tension on liquid stream flowing into side branch is intensified by increasing liquid surface tension, it will make the liquid taken off increase.

Acknowledgments The authors thank for the financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No.50876033) NSFC-United Fund of Guangdong Province (Granted No.U0834002) and Guangdong Provincial International

Cooperation Funding (Granted No.2009B050400002).

15

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Figure captions:
Fig.1. Schematic diagram of the experiment apparatus: (1) Syringe pump (2) Mixer (3) Gas tank (4) Pressure transducer (5) Microscope (6) Test T-junction (7) MFCs (8) Bubble meter (9) Separator (10) Electronic balance. Fig. 2. Test T-junction. Fig.3. Flow pattern of Chung and Kawaji (2004) showing condition at which data for phase distribution at the micro-T-junction have been obtained. Fig. 4. Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug flow. Fig. 5. Effect of surface tension on probability of the appearance of gas and liquid slug. A: Liquid surface tension=71.8Nm/m D: Liquid surface tension=29.3Nm/m Fig. 6. Pictures of slug flow at different surface tension. Fig. 7. Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of slug-annular flow. A1Ring-shaped liquid film at surface tension 71.8mN/m B1Ring-shaped liquid film at surface tension 46.2mN/m A2: VG=12.7m/s, VL=0.14m/s, pure water A3: VG=12.7m/s, VL=0.14m/s, pure water Fig. 8. Liquid behavior at different surface tension. Fig. 9. Effect of surface tension on probability of of three sub-flow patterns. Fig.10. Effect of surface tension on phase distribution of annular flow. Fig. 11. The sketches of film stop at high surface tension and low surface tension. AFilm stop at high surface tension BFilm stop at low surface tension Fig. 12. Comparison of present data with phase distribution data from different diameters by present study. Diameter=0.5mm, gas superficial velocity=15.2m/s, liquid superficial 18

velocity = 0.028m/s. by T. Stacey et al. (2000), diameter=5mm, gas superficial velocity=15m/s, liquid superficial velocity = 0.19 m/s by Buell et al. (1994): diameter = 38 mm; gas superficial velocity = 11 m/s, liquid superficial velocity = 0.18 m/s.

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Fig.1 Click here to download high resolution image

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Fig.11A Click here to download high resolution image

Fig.11B Click here to download high resolution image

Fig.12 Click here to download high resolution image

Table 1

Liquid Pure water(A) 0.005wt.%SDS solution(B) 0.01wt.% SDS solution (C) 0.025wt.%SDS solution(D)

L(kg/m3) 997.1 997.1 997.2 997.2

L(mN/m) 71.8 46.2 40.6 29.3

L(cP) 0.902 0.898 0.883 0.869