Study of annular flow wave characteristics in a rectangular microchannel for gas-liquid flow with a viscous liquid

Abstract

The wave characteristics of annular gas-liquid flow in a microchannel with a rectangular cross-section were experimentally studied. Viscous silicone oil PMS 200 and nitrogen were used as liquid and gas phases. To form the required flow regime, a side T-shaped mixer was located at the microchannel inlet. High-speed visualization allowed to register waves at the gas-liquid interface, located in the meniscus region on the microchannel short side for the wide range of superficial gas velocities. The binarization of the flow images and their subsequent processing were performed using the Python program, which made it possible to measure the liquid layer thickness and the wave amplitude depending on the gas superficial velocity. The dependences of the average liquid layer thickness and the amplitude of the waves on Regas were obtained and compared with the wave characteristics for the flow of ethanol-nitrogen mixture.