Liquid—liquid two-phase flow and droplet formation in a T-junction microchannel

Tuladhar Nerisha; Rafay Shahzad Muhammad; Huang Zien; Dhital Sandeep; Fu Taotao

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Liquid—liquid two-phase flow and droplet formation in a T-junction microchannel

Updated：2026-03-13

- Liquid—liquid two-phase flow and droplet formation in a T-junction microchannel
- Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol. 89, Issue 1, Pages: 25-35(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering and Low-Carbon Technology, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
- Author bio：
  
  Corresponding author. E-mail address: ttfu@tju.edu.cn(T. Fu).
- Funds：
- DOI：
  CLC：
- Received：23 July 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-09-21，
  
  Accepted：22 September 2025，
  
  Online First：30 September 2025，
  
  Published：2026-01
- Accepted：
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Tuladhar Nerisha, Rafay Shahzad Muhammad, Huang Zien, et al. Liquid—liquid two-phase flow and droplet formation in a T-junction microchannel[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2026, 89(1): 25-35.
DOI：

Tuladhar Nerisha, Rafay Shahzad Muhammad, Huang Zien, et al. Liquid—liquid two-phase flow and droplet formation in a T-junction microchannel[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2026, 89(1): 25-35. DOI：

摘要

Abstract

This study investigates the droplet formation for the liquid—liquid two-phase flow within a square Tjunction microchannel through numerical simulation using volume of fluid method and experimental visualization using high-speed camera imaging. The T-junction microchannel has a cross-sectional width of 0.6 mm and a total length of 27.3 mm. The solution of cyclohexane with 2% and 3% mass concentrations of sorbitan trioleate surfactant were used as the continuous phas

and water was used as the dispersed phase. Slug flow

characteristic of squeezing regime

were predominantly observed. The effects of liquid—liquid two-phase flow rate ratio

and dimensionless number on droplet size

and pressure drop were investigated. The squeezing regime was mapped for 0.0005 ≤

≤ 0.0052 (capillary number) and 0.1≤

≤10 (flow rate ratio). The pressure drops of slugs were in the range from 40 Pa to 200 Pa. The slug lengths were measured between 1 mm and 9 mm. A universal flow map dependent on

0.5

are projected to investigate the droplet formation behavior in T-junction microchannel. Correlation expressions are proposed to predict pressure drops and the slug lengths for liquid—liquid two-phase flow in a square T-junction microchannel

using dimensionless numbers such as flow rate ratio and capillary number. The result shows that large continuous phase flow rates facilitate smaller slugs

whereas higher dispersed phase flow rates result in longer shorts.

关键词

Keywords

references

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