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

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

doi:null

Your Location：

Home >

Browse articles >

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
- Liquid—liquid two-phase flow and droplet formation in a T-junction microchannel
- 中国化学工程学报（英文） 2026年89卷第1期页码：25-35
- 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：
  
  the National Natural Science Foundation of China.(22378295)
- DOI：
  中图分类号：
- 收稿：2025-07-23，
  
  修回：2025-09-21，
  
  录用：2025-09-22，
  
  网络首发：2025-09-30，
  
  纸质出版：2026-01
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Tuladhar Nerisha, Rafay Shahzad Muhammad, Huang Zien, 等. Liquid—liquid two-phase flow and droplet formation in a T-junction microchannel[J]. 中国化学工程学报（英文）, 2026,89(1):25-35.

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.
Tuladhar Nerisha, Rafay Shahzad Muhammad, Huang Zien, 等. Liquid—liquid two-phase flow and droplet formation in a T-junction microchannel[J]. 中国化学工程学报（英文）, 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

B. Rostami, G.L. Morini, Generation of newtonian droplets in newtonian and non-newtonian carrier flows in micro T-junctions under opposed-flow configuration, J. Non Newton. Fluid Mech. 281 (2020)104297.

G.T. Vladisavljevi ' c, E.E. Ekanem, Z.L. Zhang, N. Khalid, I. Kobayashi, M. Nakajima, Long-term stability of droplet production by microchannel (step) emulsification in microfluidic silicon chips with large number of terraced microchannels, Chem. Eng. J. 333(2018)380—391.

A.A. Yagodnitsyna, A.V. Kovalev, A.V. Bilsky, Flow patterns of immiscible liquid—liquid flow in a rectangular microchannel with T-junction, Chem. Eng. J. 303(2016)547—554.

A. Krishnan, V.K. Dhir, Numerical study of influence of lateral bubble merger on bubble dynamics and heat transfer during nucleate pool boiling on a horizontal substrate under a constant imposed heat flux, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 247(2025)127063.

B. Huang, H. Li, S. Xia, T. Xu, Experimental investigation of the flow and heat transfer performance in micro-channel heat exchangers with cavities, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 159(2020)120075.

A. Etminan, Y.S. Muzychka, K. Pope, Numerical investigation of gas—liquid and liquid—liquid Taylor flow through a circular microchannel with a sudden expansion, Can. J. Chem. Eng. 100 (7) (2022) 1596—1612.

P. Chaudhary, S. Ghosh, An experimental and numerical investigation to study slug characteristics in miniature geometries, Int. J. Multiph. Flow 191 (2025) 105342.

R. Abiev, S. Svetlov, S. Haase, Hydrodynamics and mass transfer of gas—liquid and liquid—liquid Taylor flow in microchannels, Chem. Eng. Technol. 40 (11) (2017) 1985—1998.

A. Etminan, Y.S. Muzychka, K. Pope, Liquid film thickness of two—phase slug flows in capillary microchannels: a review paper, Can. J. Chem. Eng. 100 (2) (2022) 325—348.

F.S. Al-Gburi, F. Khaleel, Y. Ding, J. Stofford, Numerical investigation of heat transfer in nanoparticle-enhanced Taylor flow using thermal MPPICInter-IsoFOAM, in: The 20th Open FOAM Workshop (OFW20), Vienna, Austria, 2025.

J.Y. Qian, X.J. Li, Z. Wu, Z.J. Jin, B. Sunden, A comprehensive review on liquid—liquid two-phase flow in microchannel: flow pattern and mass transfer, Mircofluid. Nanofluid. 23 (10)(2019)116.

Z.M. Liu, Y. Yang, Influence of geometry configurations on the microdroplets in flowfocusing microfluidics, Chin. J. Theor. Appl. Mech. 48 (4) (2016) 867—876.

D.A. Hoang, C. Haringa, L.M. Portela, M.T. Kreutzer, C.R. Kleijn, V. van Steijn, Design and characterization of bubble-splitting distributor for scaled-out multiphase microreactors, Chem. Eng. J. 236 (2014)545—554.

S.G. Sontti, A. Atta, CFD analysis of Taylor bubble in a co-flow microchannel with Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquid, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 56 (25) (2017)7401—7412.

C.Q. Yao, Y.Y. Liu, C. Xu, S.N. Zhao, G.W. Chen, Formation of liquid—liquid slug flow in a microfluidic T-junction: effects of fluid properties and leakage flow, AIChE J. 64 (1)(2018)346—357.

T. Thorse n, R.W. Roberts, F.H. Arnold, S.R. Quake, Dynamic pattern formation in a vesicle-generating microfluidic device, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 (18) (2001) 4163—4166.

P. Garstecki, M.J. Fuerstman, H.A. Stone, G.M. Whitesides, Formation of droplets and bubbles in a microfluidic T-junction: scaling and mechanism of break-up, Lab Chip 6(3)(2006)437—446.

L. Ma, Z.F. Yan, C.C. Du, J. Deng, G.S. Luo, Effect of viscosity on liquid—liquid slug flow in a step T-junction microchannel, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 61 (23) (2022)8333—8345.

J.Y. Qian, X.J. Li, Z. Wu, Z.J. Jin, J.H. Zhang, B. Sunden, Slug formation analysis of liquid—liquid two-phase flow in T-junction microchannels, J. Therm. Sci. Eng. Appl. 11 (5)(2019)051017.

A. Etminan, Y.S. Muzychka, K. Pope, A review on the hydrodynamics of Taylor flow in microchannels: experimental and computational studies, Processes 9 (5)(2021)870.

A. Ładosz, E. Rigger, P. Rudolf von Rohr, Pressure drop of three-phase liquid—liquid—gas slug flow in round microchannels, Microfluid. Nanofluid. 20 (3) (2016) 49.

A. Abdollahi, S.E. Norris, R.N. Sharma, Pressure drop and film thickness of liquid—liquid Taylor flow in square microchannels, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 156(2020)119802.

H. Wong, C.J. Radke, S. Morris, The motion of long bubbles in polygonal capillaries. Part 1. thin films, J. Fluid Mech. 292(1995)71—94.

R. Kurimoto, K. Hayashi, A. Tomiyama, Pressure drop and bubble velocity in Taylor flow through square microchannel, Microfluid. Nanofluid. 28(8)(2024) 58.

C.X. He, B. Jiang, W. Zhan, S.C. Li, X.D. Wang, C.Y. Zhu, Y.G. Ma, T.T. Fu, Mesoscale effect on droplet formation in a step-emulsification microdevice with parallel microchannels, Chem. Eng. J. 454(2023)140275.

W. Khan, A.K. Chandra, K. Kishor, S. Sachan, M.S. Alam, Slug formation mechanism for air—water system in T-junction microchannel: a numerical investigation, Chem. Pap. 72 (11)(2018)2921—2932.

A. Etminan, Y.S. Muzychka, K. Pope, Experimental and numerical analysis of heat transfer and flow phenomena in Taylor flow through a straight minichannel, ASME J. Heat Mass Transf 145 (8) (2023) 081801.

S.J. Kline, The purpose of uncertainty anaslysis, J. Fluids Eng. 107 (2) (1985) 153—160.

Z. Wu, Z. Cao, B. Sunde'n, Liquid—liquid flow patterns and slug hydrodynamics in square microchannels of cross-shaped junctions, Chem. Eng. Sci. 174 (2017) 56—66.

L. Lei, Y.T. Zhao, W.K. Chen, H.L. Li, X.Y. Wang, J.Z. Zhang, Experimental studies of droplet formation process and length for liquid—liquid two-phase flows in a microchannel, Energies 14(5) (2021)1341.

M. Sattari-Najafabadi, M. Nasr Esfahany, Z. Wu, B. Sunde'n, Hydrodynamics and mass transfer in liquid—liquid non-circular microchannels: comparison of two aspect ratios and three junction structur es, Chem. Eng. J. 322 (2017) 328—338.

H.Y. Ma, Q.K. Zhao, C.Q. Yao, Y.C. Zhao, G.W. Chen, Effect of fluid viscosities on the liquid—liquid slug flow and pressure drop in a rectangular microreactor, Chem. Eng. Sci. 241(2021)116697.

A. Etminan, Y.S. Muzychka, K. Pope, CFD Modelling for gas-liquid and liquid—liquid Taylor Flows in the Entrance Region of Microchannels. In: ASME 2021 Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting, 2021.

T.A. Prileszky, B.A. Ogunnaike, E.M. Furst, Statistics of droplet sizes generated by a microfluidic device, AIChE J. 62 (8)(2016)2923—2928.

D. Tsaoulidis, P. Angeli, Effect of channel size on liquid—liquid plug flow in small channels, AIChE J. 62 (1)(2016)315—324.

Z.Y. Liu, M.J. Chai, X. Chen, S.H. Hejazi, Y.Q. Li, Emulsification in a microfluidic flow-focusing device: effect of the dispersed phase viscosity, Fuel 283(2021) 119229.

A. Ładosz, P.R. von Rohr, Pressure drop of two-phase liquid—liquid slug flow in square microchannels, Chem. Eng. Sci. 191(2018)398—409.

N.A. Mortensen, F. Okkels, H. Bruus, Reexamination of Hagen—Poiseuille flow: shape dependence of the hydraulic resistance in microchannels, Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 71(5 Pt 2)(2005)057301.

浏览量

Downloads

CSCD

文章被引用时，请邮件提醒。

Submit

工具集

关联资源

Formation and regulation of non-Newtonian droplets in T-junction microchannels: Effect of contact angle

Experimental investigation of dynamic mass transfer during droplet formation using micro-LIF in a coaxial microchannel

Tailoring the molecular structure of cross-linked poly(ethylene oxide) membranes for enhanced CO2 permeation

CO2 capture by ternary ionic liquid non-aqueous phase change solvents

Synthesis of chemiluminescent carbonized polymer dots under atmospheric conditions for multimode luminescence anti-counterfeiting