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Gas–liquid flow stability and bubble formation in non-Newtonian fluids in microfluidic flow-focusing devices

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Abstract

This communication describes the gas–liquid two-phase flow patterns and the formation of bubbles in non-Newtonian fluids in microfluidic flow-focusing devices. Experiments were conducted in two different polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) square microchannels of, respectively, 600 × 600 and 400 × 400 μm. N2 bubbles were generated in non-Newtonian polyacrylamide (PAAm) solutions of different concentrations. Slug bubble, missile bubble, annular and intermittent flow patterns were observed at the cross-junction by varying gas and liquid flow rates. Gas and liquid flow rates, concentration of PAAm solutions, and channel size were varied to investigate their effect on the mechanism of bubble formation. The bubble size was proportional to the ratio of gas/liquid flow rate for slug bubbles and could be scaled with the ratio of gas/liquid flow rate as a power–law relationship for missile bubbles under wide experimental conditions.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this project from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20876107), the aid of Opening Project of State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering (Grant No. SKL-ChE-08B06) and the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (Grant No. B06006). Taotao Fu appreciates the financial aid from both the China Scholarship Council and the French Embassy in China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Taotao Fu & Youguang Ma

  2. Laboratory of Reactions and Process Engineering, Nancy-Université, CNRS, 1, rue Grandville, BP 20451, 54001, Nancy Cedex, France

    Taotao Fu, Denis Funfschilling & Huai Z. Li

Authors
  1. Taotao Fu
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  2. Youguang Ma
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  3. Denis Funfschilling
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  4. Huai Z. Li
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Correspondence to Huai Z. Li.

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Fu, T., Ma, Y., Funfschilling, D. et al. Gas–liquid flow stability and bubble formation in non-Newtonian fluids in microfluidic flow-focusing devices. Microfluid Nanofluid 10, 1135–1140 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-010-0741-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-010-0741-x

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