Liquid film thickness of two‐phase slug flows in capillary microchannels: A review paper
Amin Etminan, Yuri S. Muzychka, Kevin Pope
Abstract
Abstract Two‐phase Taylor flow has received considerable attention from researchers in recent decades due to its potential use in a wide variety of industrial and medical applications. A large number of experimental, analytical, and numerical efforts have been taken by researchers to understand the fundamental characteristics of two‐phase flows and the relevant transport phenomena. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the hydrodynamics, flow pattern, and liquid film thickness in two‐phase flows through mini‐ and microchannels with different cross‐sectional geometry. This paper also reviews correlations that predict liquid film thickness in microchannels for gas‐liquid and liquid‐liquid flows. The variations of liquid film thickness are plotted over a wide range of capillary numbers for both experimental and computational studies. This study shows that the effects of cross‐sectional area on the flow patterns and flow characteristics have not been sufficiently investigated by researchers, particularly for rectangular cross‐sectional areas with different aspect ratios.