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Numerical investigation of the moving liquid column coalescing with a droplet in triangular microchannels using CLSVOF method

三角形微通道内液柱与液滴聚合特性的CLSVOF方法数值模拟研究

  • Article
  • Engineering Sciences
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Science Bulletin

Abstract

The dynamic behavior of the moving liquid column coalescing with a sessile droplet in triangular microchannels is numerically investigated by using coupled volume of fluid with level set interface tracking method implemented in ANSYS Fluent 14.5 in conjunction with the continuum surface force model. It is found that for both hydrophobic and hydrophilic microchannels, the coalescence between the moving liquid column and droplet can accelerate the original liquid column movement as a result of the induced curvature that lowers the liquid pressure at the interface. As compared to the rectangular microchannel with the same hydraulic diameter, the triangular microchannel exhibits smaller velocity increment ratio because of stronger viscous effect. Simulation results also reveal that the velocity increment ratio increases with the contact angle in hydrophobic microchannels, but it is reverse in the hydrophilic microchannels. The effects of the droplet size, lengthways and transverse positions are also investigated in this work. It is shown that larger droplet and smaller distance between the droplet and inlet or the substrate center can result in larger velocity increment ratio as a result of higher surface energy and lower viscous dissipation energy, respectively. The results obtained in this study create a solid theoretical foundation for designing and optimizing microfluidic devices encountering such a typical phenomenon.

摘要

本文采用 CLSVOF 模型对等边三角形微通道内流动液柱与液滴的聚合特性进行了理论和数值模拟研究。研究结果表明流动液柱与液滴的聚合可以使得液柱速度增加,这主要是由于液柱与液滴聚合过程中界面形态的变化导致了毛细压力的变化,但其速度增率小于同等水力直径的矩形通道。同时考察了壁面浸润性、液滴体积、液滴位置等参数对聚合过程的影响。当壁面亲水性或憎水性越大时,聚合引起的速度增率越大;而液滴体积越大,液滴与进口的纵向距离、偏离壁面中心位置越小时,聚合获得的速度增率也越大。

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51222603, 51276208 and 51325602), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (CDJZR12148801) and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0591).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Low-Grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems (Chongqing University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400030, China

    Shuzhe Li, Rong Chen, Hong Wang, Qiang Liao, Xun Zhu, Zhibin Wang & Xuefeng He

  2. Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400030, China

    Shuzhe Li, Rong Chen, Hong Wang, Qiang Liao, Xun Zhu, Zhibin Wang & Xuefeng He

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  1. Shuzhe Li
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  2. Rong Chen
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Correspondence to Rong Chen.

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Li, S., Chen, R., Wang, H. et al. Numerical investigation of the moving liquid column coalescing with a droplet in triangular microchannels using CLSVOF method. Sci. Bull. 60, 1911–1926 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-015-0924-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-015-0924-7

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