Comparison between numerical and experimental water-in-oil dispersion in a microchannel

Philippe Desjonquères (1) , Thibaut Ménard (1) , Dominique Tarlet (2) , J. Bellettre (2)

1 CORIA - Complexe de recherche interprofessionnel en aérothermochimie
2 LTeN - Laboratoire de Thermique et d’Energie de Nantes

The dispersion of water inside a flow of oil is investigated in a microfluidic device, producing a water-in-oil emulsion. The liquid–liquid flow mainly differs from those presented in existing literature through its high capillary number (between 3 and 14), and in the head-on collision between water and oil streams. By comparing with experimental data, numerical simulations can provide more information about the topology of the flow. A coupled Volume of Fluid and Level Set method (CLSVOF) is used to treat the interface between both phases and incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved. Three set of parameters, close to those in the experimental setup, are investigated to compare experimental and numerical results. The comparison between experiments and simulation provides a precise knowledge of the liquid-liquid dispersion process and the overall flow pattern within the microfluidic device.

Mots clés: liquid-liquid flow; water-in-oil dispersion; Microchannel

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Philippe Desjonquères, Thibaut Ménard, Dominique Tarlet, J. Bellettre. Comparison between numerical and experimental water-in-oil dispersion in a microchannel. 28th Conference on Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems (ILASS Europe 2017), Sep 2017, Valence, Spain. ⟨10.4995/ILASS2017.2017.4717⟩. ⟨hal-02418408⟩