Abstract
This article describes the generation of microdispersed bubbles and droplets in a double T-junctions microfluidic device to form immiscible gas/liquid/liquid three-phase flowing systems. Segmented gas plugs are controllably prepared in water at the first T-junction to form gas/liquid two-phase fluid with the perpendicular flow cutting method. Then using this two-phase fluid as the cross-shearing fluid for the oil phase at the second T-junction, the gas/liquid/liquid three-phase flowing systems are prepared. Interestingly, it is found that the break-up of the oil droplets is mainly dominated by the cutting effect of the gas/liquid interface or the pressure drop across the emerging droplet, but independent with the viscous shearing effect of the continuous phase, even at the capillary number (Ca = u wμw/γow) higher than 0.01. The size laws and the distributions of the bubbles and droplets are investigated carefully, and a mathematical model has been developed to relating the operating conditions with the dispersed sizes.
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Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the supports of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (20525622, 20876084) and National Basic Research Program of China (2007CB714302) on this work.
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Wang, K., Lu, Y.C., Tan, J. et al. Generating gas/liquid/liquid three-phase microdispersed systems in double T-junctions microfluidic device. Microfluid Nanofluid 8, 813–821 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-009-0514-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-009-0514-6