TY - GEN
T1 - Numerical study on the gas and liquid slugs for taylor flow in a microchannel
AU - Lawal, Adeniyi
AU - Qian, Dongying
PY - 2005
Y1 - 2005
N2 - The extremely large surface-to-volume ratio and the short transport path in microchannel-based reactors enhance heat and mass transfer dramatically and hence provide many potential opportunities for chemical process development and intensification. However, the development of microreactor technology raises new technical challenges that need to be addressed for successful application in chemical reaction engineering. For gas-liquid two-phase flows in microchannels dominated by surface tension effects, the Taylor slug flow regime is the most commonly encountered flow pattern. The present study focuses on the development of the gas and liquid slugs for such flow patterns in a microchannel, since the hydrodynamic characterization is very important for understanding the transport phenomena. In this study, a T-junction reactor (either as packed-bed or with catalytic wall) of varying width; 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2 and 3 mm, served as the model micro-reactor, and a finite volume based commercial CFD package, Fluent, was adopted for the numerical simulation of the flow. The slug length, slug velocity, and velocity profile for the gas and liquid slugs as well as the reactor pressure drop were obtained for various operating conditions. The simulation results were in good agreement with our experimental results, and reported literature data. Several correlations for the predictions of the flow characteristics were developed based on the simulation results.
AB - The extremely large surface-to-volume ratio and the short transport path in microchannel-based reactors enhance heat and mass transfer dramatically and hence provide many potential opportunities for chemical process development and intensification. However, the development of microreactor technology raises new technical challenges that need to be addressed for successful application in chemical reaction engineering. For gas-liquid two-phase flows in microchannels dominated by surface tension effects, the Taylor slug flow regime is the most commonly encountered flow pattern. The present study focuses on the development of the gas and liquid slugs for such flow patterns in a microchannel, since the hydrodynamic characterization is very important for understanding the transport phenomena. In this study, a T-junction reactor (either as packed-bed or with catalytic wall) of varying width; 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2 and 3 mm, served as the model micro-reactor, and a finite volume based commercial CFD package, Fluent, was adopted for the numerical simulation of the flow. The slug length, slug velocity, and velocity profile for the gas and liquid slugs as well as the reactor pressure drop were obtained for various operating conditions. The simulation results were in good agreement with our experimental results, and reported literature data. Several correlations for the predictions of the flow characteristics were developed based on the simulation results.
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M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:22444433760
SN - 0816909849
T3 - 2005 AIChE Spring National Meeting, Conference Proceedings
SP - 2429
BT - 2005 AIChE Spring National Meeting, Conference Proceedings
T2 - 2005 AIChE Spring National Meeting
Y2 - 10 April 2005 through 14 April 2005
ER -