Taylor vortex center, film thickness, velocity and frequency of circulations in slugs and plugs for non-Newtonian and Newtonian fluids in two-phase Taylor flow in microchannels

Abstract

Based on the recently published mathematical model for non-Newtonian two-phase flow in microchannels (Abiev, 2022) an extension that allows to calculate the majority of important parametersof two-phase Taylor flow for non-Newtonianfluids was developed and is presented in this paper. The following parameters could now be calculated theoretically for two-phase Taylor flow of non-Newtonian fluids(both for liquid slug and liquid plug): (i) the center of Taylor vortices, (ii) their boundaries, (iii) mean velocitiesand frequency of circulation, (iv) mean velocities in by-passand transit films, and (v) transition from circulation to by-pass flowconditions. The coincidence with the Newtonian fluids as a limiting case was evaluated.The obtained results represent crucial input data for the three-layer mass transfer model, the frequency of circulation-basedmass transfermodel,and are useful for the understanding of the influence of various parameters on heat and mass transfer intensity in Taylor flows.