Modeling the motion of a Taylor bubble in a microchannel through a shear-thinning fluid

Abstract

Applications of multiphase flows in microchannels as chemical and biological reactors and cooling systems for microelectronic devices typically present liquid slugs alternated with bubbles of elongated shape, the Taylor bubbles. These occupy almost entirely the cross-section of the channel and present a hemispherical front and a liquid layer, the lubrication film, which separates the gas from the tube wall. The Taylor bubble perturbs the surrounding fluids activating many transport mechanisms in the proximity of the gas-liquid interface; therefore, the bubble motion significantly influences the heat and mass transfer rates. Although many works deeply investigate the bubble hydrodynamics in Newtonian fluids, the knowledge about the relation between bubble hydrodynamics and rheological properties is insufficient, and studies where the continuous phase exhibits a shear-thinning behavior are missing. Our numerical analysis tries to fill this gap by investigating the motion of a Taylor bubble in a non-Newtonian shear-thinning fluid, modeled by the Carreau viscosity model. First, we validate the results against the Newtonian case and a recent theory for shear-thinning fluids (Picchi et al., Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2021, 918). Then, we investigate the bubble hydrodynamics far from the validity range of the current models. Finally, we study the scaling of the bubble velocity and lubrication film thickness, extending the current theory to shear-thinning fluids.