Mass transfer mechanism and relationship of gas–liquid annular flow in a microfluidic cross-junction device

Abstract

Mass transfer performance of gas–liquid two-phase flow at microscale is the basis of application of microreactor in gas–liquid reaction systems. At present, few researches on the mass transfer property of annular flow have been reported. Therefore, the mass transfer mechanism and relationship of gas–liquid annular flow in a microfluidic cross-junction device are studied in the present study. We find that the main factors, i.e., flow pattern, liquid film thickness, liquid hydraulic retention time, phase interface fluctuation, and gas flow vorticity, which influence the flow mass transfer property, are directly affected both by gas and liquid flow velocities. But the influences of gas and liquid velocities on different mass transfer influencing factors are different. Thereout, the fitting relationships between gas and liquid flow velocities and mass transfer influencing factors are established. By comparing the results from calculations using fitting equations and simulations, it shows that the fitting equations have relatively high degrees of accuracy. Finally, the Pareto front, namely the Pareto optimal solution set, of gas and liquid velocity conditions for the best flow mass transfer property is obtained using the method of multi-objective particle swarm optimization. It is proved that the mass transfer property of the gas–liquid two-phase flow can be obviously enhanced under the guidance of the obtained Pareto optimal solution set through experimental verification.