A

Project Report
On
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGA
TIGATION OF LIQUID LIQUID FLOW IN MICROCH
CHANNELS

Guided by:

Submitted
itted by :

Dr. U. K. Arun Kumar

Mukesh Kumar Yadav

2011UCH1034
2011

(Assistant Professor)

Jitendra Singh

2011UCH158
2011

Dept. of Chemical Eng.

Mahendar Kumar Meena

2011UCH1587
201

Amandeep Yadav

2011UCH1004
20

Submitted
In partial fulfilment
ent of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor
lor of
o
Technology

In

Chemical Engineering
Depart
partment of Chemical Engineering
Malaviyaa Na
National Institute of Technology, Jaipur

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL
ENGINEERING
MALAVIYA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
JAIPUR (302017) INDIA

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the project report entitled, EXPERIMENTAL
INVESTIGATION OF LIQUID LIQUID FLOW IN MICRO
CHANNELS has been completed and submitted by the VIII Semester
students Mukesh Kumar Yadav (2011uch1034), Jitendra
Singh(2011uch1583), Mahendar Kumar Meena(2011uch1587),
Amandeep Yadav(2011uch1004) under my guidance.

Guide & Supervisor

Dr. U. K. Arun Kumar
(Assistant Professor)
Department of Chemical Engineering
Malaviya National Institute of Technology
Jaipur (302017).
2

DECLARATION
We hereby declare that the work proposed in the B.Tech Project Report entitled
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF LIQUID LIQUID FLOW IN MICROCHANNELS in partial
fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of B.Tech in Chemical Engineering
submitted to the Department of Chemical Engineering , MALAVIYA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
TECHNOLOGY, JAIPUR, is an authentic of my carried out from July 2014 to June 2015 under the
supervision and guidance of Dr. U. K. Arun Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical
Engineering, MNIT, Jaipur. Information used from literature and other sources in the present
thesis has been duly acknowledged by giving references at the appropriate places.
The matter embedded in this thesis has not been submitted by

(Mukesh Kumar Yadav)

(Jitendra Singh)

(Mahendar Kumar Meena)

(Amandeep Yadav)

Date:
The present work is an authentic carried out by these students refer my supervision. Try the
best of my knowledge, the matter embedded in this work has not been submitted in any other
University or Institute for the award of any Degree or Diploma.

Dr. U. K. Arun Kumar

Assistant professor
Department of Chemical Engineering,
MNIT Jaipur.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We wish to express our deep sense of gratitude to our guide Dr. U.K. Arun Kumar, Assistant
Professor,Chemical Engineering, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur who inspired
us to undertake this challenging project.

We would also like to express sincere gratitude to Dr. Suja George, Head of the Department,
Chemical Engineering and Prof. I.K. Bhatt,Director, Malaviya National Institute of Technology,
Jaipur for all the facilities provided in the department.

We extend thanks to Dr. Sushant Upadhyay, Project Coordinator, Department of Chemical

Engineering, for allocation of the desired project and timely assistance during various stages of
the project.

Finally we would like to thank all those people who directly or indirectly were responsible for
making our project a successful endeavor.

Mukesh Kumar Yadav

Jitendra Singh

Mahendar Kumar Meena

Amandeep Yadav

Department of Chemical Engineering

Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur
4

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page no.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1) Introduction
1.2) Conventional Contactors used for Liquid-Liquid extraction
1.3) Advantages of Micro Structured Reactors over conventional reactors
1.4) Application of Microfluidics
1.5) Governing Dimensionless Numbers in micro channel
1.6) Governing Equations in micro channel
1.7) Mechanism of Mass Transfer in Slug Flow

7
8
11
11
12
13

1.8) Flow pattern in Liquid-Liquid micro channel system

14

2.

LITERATURE REVIEW

15

3.

OBJECTIVE

19

4.

EXPERIMENTAL SECTION

20

5.

OBSERVATIONS & CALCULATIONS

21

6.

CONCLUSION

24

6.

REFERENCES

25

ABSTRACT:
The hydrodynamics and the pressure drop of liquidliquid slug flow in round micro capillaries
are studied. Here the liquid liquid flow system is Toluene water. The slug lengths of the
alternating continuous and dispersed phases were measured as a function of the slug flow rate
(0.2 3ml/min.), the toluene to water flow ratio (0.1 3), and the micro capillary internal
diameter (0.5mm, 0.8mm, 1mm). We found the slug flow distribution is uniform throughout the
length of capillary.

Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction
Microfluidics is the field of science that deals with technology and systems that can be used for
the handling or processing of very small amount of fluids in the range of 10-9 to 10-18 liters. It is
an interdisciplinary field which include engineering, chemistry, physics, nanotechnology,
biochemistry and biotechnology. In microfluidics channels in the size range of ten to several
hundred micrometer size is used. It mainly exploits the miniaturized size of the channels. It has a
wide future applicability in the field of chemical and biotechnology to synthesize chemicals and
separation process. Microfluidics emerged in the beginning of 1980s principally with the
development of inkjet print heads. The principle of process intensification which aims to use
green technology such as small, compact, energy efficient processes has led to the interest in
micro-fluidics. In the recent years more interest in micro structured devices are shown which are
expected to replace the existing manufacturing and separation processing in chemical and
pharmaceutical industries (1).
Liquid-liquid extraction is a commonly used separation techniques used in refinery,
pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Separation by Extraction contains three important
stages. In the first stage two liquids which are partially or completely immiscible are mixed
together in which emulsion drops are formed. The second is settling stage in which the liquids
separate into two layers and form two clear layers. The final stage involves decanting of
individual layers, separation of solute from the solvent and solvent recycle (2).

1.2 Conventional Contactors used for Liquid-Liquid extraction

The most important are

Mixer-Settler

Centrifugal extractors

Columns

In a mixer-settler aqueous and organic liquids are made to contact with each other in a mixer
with agitation and it is allowed to settle in a settler with a shallow basin where liquids separate
into two different layers and are decanted separately. In a centrifugal extractor, the immiscible
liquids are mixed in an annular space between a stationary housing and a rotor. Centrifugal
forces are used for separation of the two immiscible liquids. Columns can be divided into two
categories- static columns and agitated columns. Packed column, sieve plate column and spray
column are the example for static columns, whereas rotating disk contactor, Karr column, Kuhni
column, Scheibel column and pulsed columns are example for agitated columns. The advantages
and disadvantages of conventional contactors are listed in Table 1. A common disadvantage of
these conventional equipment is non uniformity that occur due to the difficulties of the
fundamental hydrodynamics (3).

Advantages
Better contacting
Low maintenance
Simplicity

Disadvantages
Mixer Settler
Investment cost is high
Operation cost is high

Centrifugal Contactors
Liquids with low density difference can be Scaling up is difficult
used
Only small volume of solvent is required
Mechanical complexity
Rapid mixing can increase quality and Maintenance cost is high
product recovery
Advantages
Disadvantages
Static Columns
Easy operation
Lower cost

Performance completely depends on packing

materials
Only limited range of flow rates can give
good performance
Agitated Columns
8

Investment cost is low

Small density differences cannot be separated

easily
Performance is better
Limited flow ratio can give good performance
Table 1. Advantages and disadvantages of conventional contactors

1.3 Advantages of Micro Structured Reactors over conventional reactors

The disadvantage of the conventional mass transfer equipment are very low interfacial area or
surface area to volume ratio which is in the range 1000 m2/m3. High mass and heat transfer
limitations which can result in very low productivity and selectivity in conventional reactors can
be overcome using Micro Structured Reactors (MSR). The small channel dimensions available in
the MSR results in high surface to volume ratios and increases internal mass transfer and
external heat transfer. It also reduces the risk related with toxic and other hazardous materials
due to the very low amount of substances being handled. Low residence time & hold ups of these
kind of Micro Structured extraction techniques makes it an attractive substitute, both technical
and economic terms to conventional arrangements. Micro structure contactors are advantages
due to its high interfacial area i.e., around 1000 to 15000 m2/m3 and the internal circulation that
reduces the diffusion distance eventually enhancing the mass transfer rate. Moreover micro
structured contactors does not require mechanical parts for mixing (8).
Economy of using micro channel is evaluated in terms of power requirement which is defined as
energy spent per unit volume of liquid in a continuous process. One of the important parameters
for assessing technical reactors is power input. Table 2 shows a comparison of power input for
MSR with other conventional extraction equipment.

Contactor

Power input kJ/m3 of liquid

Centrifugal extractors

850-2600

Impinging streams

280

Rotating disk impinging streams contactor

175-250

Mixer Settler

150-250

Impinging streams extractors

35-1500
9

Agitated extraction column

0.5-190

Capillary micro channel(I.D= 0.5

0.5-1 mm)

0.2-20

Table 2. Power input for conventional contactors

Comparison of the rates of heatt aand mass transfer of various reactors is shown in Fig 1.

Figure 1.. B
Benchmarking of micro-structured reactors

Comparison of mass transfer coe

oefficients and effective interfacial area of conven
entional extraction
equipment with the micro contac
actor is shown in Table 3.

A (m2/m3)

kLa (s
( -1)

Agitated Contactor

32-311

(48-83)
3)10-3

Packed Bed Column

(Pall/Raschig
ring,
saddles)

80-450

(3.4-5)
5) 10-3

Contactor

Intalo
talox
10

RTL extractor
(Grasser raining bucket)
Air operated two impinging jets
reactors
Two impinging jets reactor

90-140

(0.6-1.3) 10-3

350-900

0.075

1000-3400

0.28

Capillary micro channel

830-3200
0.88-1.67
(I.D=0.5-1 mm)
Table 3. Specific Interfacial area and overall mass transfer co-efficient for conventional
contactors

1.4 Application of Microfluidics

Micro Structured Reactor finds its applications in

Extraction
Chemical Reactions
Polymerase Chain
Nano particle crystallization
Protein folding
Bio-process optimization
Cell analysis
Drug screening
Clinical diagnostics

1.5 Governing Dimensionless Numbers in micro channel

The dimensionless numbers that governs the flow in micro capillaries are Reynolds number,
Webber number and Capillary number.
Reynolds Number=

11

Capillary Number=
=

Weber Number=

1.6 Governing Equations in micro channel

Equation of continuity:
+ . (

)=0

(1)

Equation of motion:
(

+ . (

) = -" + . [ $( +

&

)] + ' + (

(2)

Volume fraction equation:

*+

+ .,

=0

(3)

With
=

$=

Where, , , V, p and F denote the mixture density, the mixture viscosity, the mixture velocity
field, the pressure and the source term that represents the surface tension force, respectively.

1.7 Mechanism of Mass Transfer in Slug Flow

12

For Micro Structured Reactors two immiscible phases are required. The two phases can be either
Liquid-Liquid or Gas-Liquid. As the feed are in the immiscible form, the product formed will
also be in an immiscible form making separation easy. Water and kerosene are examples for
inorganic and organic phases. The parameters that define the hydrodynamics of two phase flow
are

Surface tension of fluid.

Viscosity of fluid.

Contact angle of the fluids with the reactor surface.

Geometry of the channel and the inlet section.

Channel arrangement relative to direction of gravity.

The transport of materials in liquid-liquid slug flow generated in micro-channel is enhanced by

two phenomena i.e., internal circulation and interfacial diffusion. The shear generated between
the wall of micro-channel and the axis of the slug generates internal circulation which helps in
uniform distribution within the slugs. The mechanism of internal circulation also helps in
reducing the boundary layer thickness across the interface. Thus the major concentration gradient
exist at the interface which leads to shorter diffusion distance and faster mass transfer (10).

Figure 2. Mass transfer in slug flow

The mass transfer rate in a micro channel is largely dependent convection and diffusion behavior
of the fluids. It also depend on internal circulations inside each slugs when it is flowing. Internal
13

circulation is formed due to she

hear between the axis and reactor and the inside
de wall forces and
decreased volume for transfer.. M
Major reported studies on micro channels have
ave focused on the
effect of length of slug, ratio off tthe flow rates, velocity of slug, micro channell geometry
g
etc.., on
mass transfer behavior.

1.8 Flow pattern in Liquid

id-Liquid micro channel system
Different Liquid-Liquid flow patt
attern are

1.8.1 Droplet Flow

Droplet flow is formed when th
the flow of dispersed phase is much lower than
tha the fluid that
completely wets the wall of the
he reactor. The diameter of the droplets are lesse
sser than the inner
diameter of the capillary (5).

1.8.2 Slug flow

Slug flow is generated when the
he flow rates of both the liquid are equal and low
ower. Other names
includes plug or segmented or bbullet flow. Slugs (capsules) are generated when
hen surface tension
of a liquid (among the 2) with th
the wall is higher compared to the interfacial tension
te
of the two
liquids. In this case the interfac
acial tension plays a dominant role than the visc
iscous and inertial
forces. In slug flow, the two pha
hases is transported through the channel as alter
ternating elongated
bubbles. The equivalent diameter
ter of the bubble is larger than the channel diamete
eter and appears as
bullets (5).

1.8.3 Stratified Flow

It is also known as parallel flow
w. This type of flow pattern is characterized by
y the flow of both
the liquids, one above the otherr aas layers. Here the surface tension is dominated
ed by inertial force
(5).

14

Chapter 2
Literature Review
2.1 Literature Review
J.R Burns et al (2001) separated acetic acid from kerosene using slug flow. The experiments
were conducted in a micro channel reactor made of glass material in a 380 m in width. Acid
and base reaction were used as the basis of the study. Aqueous solution of KOH and NaOH with
phenol red as pH indicator was used as the base having concentration ranging from 0.1 to 0.4
mol/L. Organic phase was prepared by mixing acetic acid in kerosene using Sudan III(red) and
Sudan IV (blue). The aqueous Phase was comprised of KOH and NaOH solution. Both the
organic and aqueous were made to flow in micro channel. Color change was used as the
indicator for the completion of the reaction. It is reported that 97 % of acetic acid is separated.
Volumetric mass transfer coefficient were reported in the order of 0.510-4 s-1
Kashid et al (2007) performed experiments on Liquid-Liquid Slug flow in a capillary along with
wettability based flow splitter and showed that these are better than conventional contractors.
LLE of 3 non reacting systems were used by them i) iodine in aqueous solution and kerosene ii)
succinic acid in aqueous solution and n-butanol iii) acetic acid in kerosene and distilled water.
0.5, 0.75 and 1 mm capillary sizes were used. Capillary contactor was made of PTFE. The
splitter worked on the principle of preferential wettability of a liquid on a solid material. Mass
transfer co-efficient and extraction efficiency were used as the parameters for evaluating the
performance of capillary contactor. They studied the effect of flow rates, capillary sizes and flow
ratio on the liquid-liquid slug flow system as well as the Y splitter. They also compared the
results with conventional contactors. They showed that with increase in the flow velocity for a
given capillary, the extraction efficiency decreases. The extraction efficiency increases with
decrease in solvent flow rates. An extraction efficiency of more than 90 % were achieved in all
the cases. Specific interfacial area was found to be 4500-4800 m2/m3 and volumetric mass
transfer co-efficient kLa (10-4 1/s) was found to be 0.31-0.98 for system (i) and ID=0.5 mm.
Dessimoz et al (2008) used two rectangular glass capillaries with an equivalent diameter of 269
& 400 m. Deionized water, hexane and dyed toluene was used as the immiscible fluids. T and
15

Y junctions were studied. Volumetric flow rates of both the fluids were in the range 1 and 6
ml/hr. The formation mechanism of slug and parallel flow and compared the mass transfer
performances of two flow patterns. Slug flow and parallel flow were used for extraction and it
was reported that slug flow contributes determined the mass transfer coefficients for parallel and
slug flow using instantaneous neutralization (acidbase) reaction. The two flow patterns showed
the same global volumetric mass transfer coefficients in the range of 0. 20. 5 s1.

Raimondi et al (2014) performed experiments of mass transfer with liquid-liquid slug flow in
square micro channels. They carried out experiments in two micro reactors having square section
of 0.21 and 0.30 mm width and were made from silicon and glass. The manufacturing technique
used was photolithographic technique. High-aspect-ratio micro channels were fabricated in a
silicon wafer by plasma etching using the deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) technique and the
Bosch process. The introduction of the fluids were performed by syringes with stainless steel
needles. A high-speed camera coupled with a binocular enables the visualization of the flow in
the micro channel. Water/acetone/toluene two-phase system were used. Acetone was the solute
which transfers from toluene (dispersed phase) to water (continuous phase).The concentration of
acetone in the continuous phase is determined using secondary channels to extract this phase. In
order to analyze continuous phase samples representative of this phase in the micro channel, half
of its flow rate is constantly extracted. There were five secondary channels per micro reactor
located at a distance of 2.4mm, 7.8mm, 17.6mm, 32.2 mm and 48.8 mm from the middle of the
T-shape droplets generator. The total length of the main channel in which mass transfer occurs is
50.6 mm (from the droplets generator to the main outlet). The concentration of acetone in the
continuous phase was determined by UV-spectrophotometry measurements. They measured
droplet side mass transfer coefficient from the experimental concentration profiles. Volumetric
mass transfer coefficient ranges from 0.72 to 8.44 s-1. The higher values are obtained for the
higher droplets velocities, around 0.3 ms-1, most of the values are of the order of magnitude of 2
s-1 for droplets velocity ranging from 0.025 to 0.08 m s-1. They also performed interfacial area
modelling.
Xu et al (2013) studied alkaline hydrolysis reaction by generating slug flow in micro channel.
They extracted sodium hydroxide in water into n-butyl acetate. Interfacial area by snapshot
method. They studied the effect of various parameters on slug length, mass transfer coefficient
16

and overall volumetric extraction rate quantitatively. They found a decreasing trend of
volumetric mass transfer coefficient along the length of the channel. It was correlated volumetric
mass transfer coefficient with different channel length. Specific interfacial area reported to be
4000-2250 m2/m3 and the volumetric mass transfer co-efficient, kLa (10-4 1/s) 0.05-0.35 in a 0.6
mm capillary.
Darekar et al (2014) carried out liquid-liquid extraction experiments in two diverse types of
micro-channels using zinc sulfate, di-(2-ethylhexyl)-phosphoric-acid (D2EHPA) in dodecane
which would be a typical reactive extraction system. They used T-junction serpentine micro
channel and split and recombine micro channel. They studied the effects of organic to aqueous
ratio and residence time on overall mass transfer coefficient. They also made an attempt to
explain the L-L flow patterns with the help of high speed image acquisition system. They also
reported correlations connecting overall mass transfer co-efficient for organic to aqueous ratio
and velocity for both the micro channels. They got volumetric mass Transfer Co-efficient, kLa
(10-4 1/s) as 5.41-0.02.
Kashid and Agar (2007) studied the effect of different operating conditions on the slug size,
pressure drop, interfacial area, flow regimes gas been done. They measured the pressure drop
along the Y shaped mixing element and the length of downstream capillaries were reported.
Power required for creating interfacial area were also reported from the pressure loss over the Y
junction. The results obtained from the power requirement calculation and interfacial area
showed that the Micro Structure Reactor are much superior to conventional equipment in term of
power input and specific energy per unit interfacial area generated.

Tsaoulidius et al (2013) studied the extraction of uranium (VI) from aqueous nitric acid solution
by using tri-butyl phosphate dissolved in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis {(tri-fluoro methyl)
sulfonyl} amide. They performed the experiments on a Teflon micro channel of 0.5 mm internal
diameter. UV-Vis Spectroscopy was used to determine the concentration of dioxouranium (VI)
in the aqueous and the ionic liquid phases. They studied the effect of initial nitric acid
concentration (.01-3 M), phase flow rates and residence time and showed that extraction
efficiency followed a marginally different trend. They also showed that mass transfer co efficient
varied between 0.049 s-1 & 0.312 s-1
17

2.2 Overview of Literature Review

Author

Kashid et al.,

Year System

2007

Volumetric mass

Efficiency Specific
Interfacial

Transfer Co-efficient,

Area(m2/m3)

kLa (10-4 1/s)

4500-4800

0.31-0.98

solution into kerosene

For system 1 with

For system 1 with

2.Acetic acid in kerosene

film.(I.D-0.5 mm)

film.(I.D-0.5 mm)

1.Iodine in aqueous

>90 %

into distilled water

Burns and

2001

Ramshaw
Dessimoz et

--

2008

Deionized water, dyed

--

10,700-11,200

Order of magnitude-0.5

--

1450-1680 (I.D-0.5

0.2-0.5

toluene and hexane

2007

Water and Cyclohexane

Agar
Tsaoulidis et

--

into water

al.,

Kashid and

Kerosene in acetic acid

mm)
2013

al.,

Uranium(VI) from

78 %-

aqueous nitric acid

58%

78 %- 58%

0.312-0.132

solutions by tri butyl

phosphate
Xu et al.,

2013

Sodium hydroxide in

--

water into n-butyl

4000-2250 (I.D-0.6 0.05-0.35

mm)

acetate
Darekar et
al.,

2014

Sodium hydroxide in

--

2930(250 L

water into n-butyl

serpentine micro

acetate

channel)

18

5.41-0.02

Raimondi et

2014

Water, acetone and

--

toluene

al.,

4540-9600
(Square microchannel- 0.30 mm)

Table 4: Overview of Literature Review

Objective:
To study the various parameter relations in liquid liquid flow in micro channel

Velocity distribution
Pressure drop
Flow regimes
Surface area

To study the hydrodynamics of liquid liquid flow in micro channel

Different diameter
Different length
Different flow rates

19

0.72-8.44

Experimental Section:
Experimental setup:

Procedure:

Fill both the syringes up to 10ml one is with water (dye) and the other with Toluene.
Connect the syringes to capillary with the help of Teflon tubes.
Set the flow rates for both the liquids.
Then start the experiment and observe the flow pattern.
If the slugs are of uniform length then take a picture of it.
Then by changing the flow ratio take observations.

20

Observations & Calculations:

1. Capillary internal diameter = 0.8mm
s. no.

1
2
3
4
5
6

Toluene flow Unit

Water flow
rate(ml/min) rate(ml/min) Slug
length
(cm)
2.3
2.3
0.2476
0.8
0.4
1.03333
0.8
0.6
0.8031
1.5
0.5
1.7123
0.4
0.2
1.0182
0.9
0.9
0.7524

Pressure
drop
(N/m2)

Reynolds
no.

Weber
no.

(Capillary
no.)*10^-3

S/V
(toluene)
(m2/m3)

1640.88
2547.51
1940.72
2117.17
1061.196
1856.5

114.55
35.85
43.43
56.46
17.945
55.675

0.475
0.337
0.0447
0.095
0.00833
0.0738

3.321
0.931
1.03
1.68
0.4646
1.36

6677
5503
5492
5551
5506
5606

Pressure
drop
(N/m2)

Reynolds
no.

Weber
no.

(Capillary
no.)*10^-3

S/V
(toluene)
(m2/m3)

2271.69
2582.59
1679.56
2078.87
1567.15
1842.18
2031.27
2261.46

56.847
79.867
36.75
43.935
90.195
19.65
53.49
48.28

0.0756
0.3756
0.04781
0.0678
0.08156
0.561
0.3128
0.1561

1.253
0.315
0.3186
0.1875
0.1325
0.2386
0.3175
1.6981

4752
5050
4325
4550
4223
4435
4545
4750

2. Capillary internal diameter = 1mm

s. no.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Toluene flow Unit

Water flow
rate(ml/min) rate(ml/min) Slug
length
(cm)
1.00
1.00
0.3545
1.50
1.50
0.3023
0.50
0.50
1.0312
0.75
0.75
0.4958
0.30
0.60
1.4697
0.30
0.90
0.5778
0.30
1.20
0.5117
0.50
1.50
0.4875

21

3. Capillary internal diameter = 0.5mm

s. no.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Water flow
Toluene flow Unit
rate(ml/min) rate(ml/min) Slug
length
(cm)
0.50
0.50
0.1782
0.30
0.30
0.2323
0.40
0.40
0.1966
0.60
0.60
0.1643
0.40
0.60
0.2725
0.40
0.80
0.2543
0.60
0.80
0.1952
0.60
0.90
0.1772

Pressure
drop
(N/m2)

Reynolds
no.

Weber
no.

(Capillary
no.)*10^-3

S/V
(toluene)
(m2/m3)

1672.515
1470.595
2018.101
1247.099
2400.667
2823.835
2436.292
2720.781

5.2019
29.277
78.47
57.135
52.12
58.88
67.28
74.84

0.0943
0.0338
0.0588
0.1368
0.092
0.132
0.182
0.208

1.808
1.1574
0.7506
2.3957
0.1325
0.2386
0.3175
1.6981

9970
9943
10157
11263
9420
9530
10700
10100

22

Sample Calculation:
Flow rate of toluene = 0.6 ml/min.
Flow rate of water = 0.3 ml/min.

Slug length of toluene(Ld) = 0.8896cm

Slug length of water(Lc) = 0.587cm
Unit slug length(Lu) = 1.4697cm
Contact angle() = 45
Capillary i.d. = 1mm
r = radius of slug = 0.5mm
Surface area = S = 201 + 201Ld

23

Volume = 01 Ld
S/V for toluene = 4223 m2/m3
P(slug flow) = P(frictional) + P(interfacial)
= Pfr,c + Pfr,d + PI

Pfr,d =

456 7 8
9:

Pfr,c =

45; (< 7) 8
9:

v = (Qc + Qd)/A

PI =

=
9

cos A

P(slug flow) = 1567.15 N/m2

Re = 90.195
We = 0.08256
Ca = 0.1325 * 10

Conclusion:
We have used three capillaries of different diameters (0.5mm, 0.8mm, 1mm). The S/V ratio is
achieved highest in 0.5mm capillary(about 10000 m2/m3), & lowest in 1mm capillary (about
4400 m2/m3), while for 0.8mm capillary it is about 5500 m2/m3. S/V ratio increases with slug
velocity & decreases with slug length. Pressure drop increases with slug velocity & decreases
with capillary diameter. The weber no. is about 0.4, so interfacial force is predominant over
inertial force.

24

The capillary no. is very low, thus interfacial force is predominant over viscous force.From the
results we find that the slug length is the function of slug velocity. For weber no. greater than 1,
the flow becomes annular and parallel flow. Annular and parallel flows are easily destabilized
by changing flow rates and volumetric flow ratios. Slug and drop flows are easily controllable.
The interfacial pressure drop is calculated at constant contact angle. The superficial velocity is
used to calculate frictional pressure drop. The receding & advancing contact angles can only be
assumed equal at very low velocities. The difference between them increases with the linear
velocity.

25

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