Liquid-liquid colliding micro-dispersion and general scaling laws in novel T-junction microdevices

• Published in: Chemical engineering science 2022-08, Vol.258, p.117746, Article 117746
• Main Authors: Song, Jing, Sheng, Lin, Cui, Yongjin, Wang, Shi, Wang, Yujun, Deng, Jian, Luo, Guangsheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Colliding micro-dispersion; Scaling laws; T-junction microchannel
• ISSN: 0009-2509; 1873-4405
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2022.117746

•Two novel T-junction microdevices have been constructed to intensify the colliding micro-dispersion.•The droplet formation frequency is increased by more than 40 times in the novel T-junction microdevice.•The microflow pattern including all three flow regimes in the colliding T-junction microdevice is reported for the first time.•General scaling laws for droplet size under different flow regimes have been established. Colliding micro-dispersion has been extensively used to generate uniform droplets in liquid-liquid heterogeneous reactions. However, there are few reports on the colliding micro-dispersion. More importantly, only squeezing flow and big size droplets can be generated in the normal colliding micro-dispersion process, and even there exists no general scaling laws for droplet size. We have developed novel T-junction microdevices with new geometric structures to intensify the colliding micro-dispersion and proposed general scaling laws for droplet size in colliding T-junction microdevices. The droplet formation frequency was increased by more than 40 times, and a much wider operating range was allowed in the novel colliding T-junction microdevice. The flow regime distribution under high Weber number was explored for the first time and a complete liquid-liquid flow pattern map under colliding micro-dispersion has been also proposed. We also proved that jetting flow regime can be occurred under high Weber number and low capillary number.