Experimental study on the flow pattern's characteristics of gas-non-Newtonian liquids two-phase flow in microchannels.

This study objective is to obtain the characteristics of gas-non-Newtonian liquids flow patterns in square microchannels. The square microchannels of 0.8 x 0.8 mm was used in this study. Water, 0.2%wt Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) aqueous solution, and 0.4%wt CMC were used in this study as the liquid test. While, nitrogen gas was used as gas test. The gas and liquid superficial velocity were varied of 0.26-7.8 m/s and 0.1-1 m/s, respectively. The flow patterns were recorded by using the high-speed camera. The flow pattern video data was processed by using image processing to characterize the flow pattern. Whereas, the two-phase flow pressure drop was measured by the differential pressure transducer. The flow patterns that occur in this study were plotted in the flow patterns map and suitable with the flow patterns transition lines based on the previous study. More characteristics of flow pattern including the axial length of gas slug, bubble velocity, and void fraction is explained well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]