Adiabatic two-phase flow in rectangular microchannels with different aspect ratios: Part II – bubble behaviors and pressure drop in single bubble

Abstract

One of the major flow patterns in a microchannel is an elongated bubble flow, which is similar to a long slug bubble. Behaviors and pressure drop for a single bubble in a rectangular microchannel were studied. Based on the experiments in Part I of this paper, data for liquid superficial velocities of 0.06–0.8 m/s, gas superficial velocities of 0.06–0.66 m/s and AR of 0.92, 0.67, 0.47 and 0.16 were analyzed. The velocity, length, number, and frequency of the single bubble in the rectangular microchannel were obtained from image processing based on a unit cell model. The bubble velocities were proportional to total superficial velocity. As the aspect ratio decreased, the portion of the bubble area increased due to the corner effect. New correlation of the bubble velocity for different aspect ratio was proposed. Also, bubble and liquid slug length, the number of the unit cell and bubble frequency were analyzed with different aspect ratios. The pressure drop for the single bubble in the rectangular microchannels was evaluated using the information of the bubble behavior. The pressure drop in the single elongated bubble was proportional to the bubble velocity. The pressure drop in the single elongated bubble in the rectangular microchannel increased as the aspect ratio decreased.