Numerical simulation on pressure drops for air-water two-phase flow in micro-channels

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Rigorous two-phase flow modeling is one of the great challenges in the thermal sciences. A two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of air-water two-phase pressure drop characteristics in micro-channels by using volume of fluid (VOF) method was carried out in this paper. The simulations were performed in a horizontal micro-channel with a diameter of 1.1 mm and a length of 200 mm. Firstly, a variety of air-water two-phase flow patterns (including bubbly, slug, slug-annular and annular flow) were simulated in order to validate the feasibility and reliability of the VOF method. Next to that, the two-phase pressure drops in micro-channel were analyzed numerically by using the same CFD method. Also the comparison of pressure drop among the numerical simulations, experimental data and the results calculated by homogeneous equilibrium model was presented. The agreement between numerical results and the existing experimental data was found to be satisfactory. Based on this good agreement, it is finally found that the numerical analysis procedure proposed in this paper can be used to achieve a better prediction for micro-channel air-water flow characteristics.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2008 Proceedings of the ASME Micro/Nanoscale Heat Transfer International Conference, MNHT 2008
Pages997-1004
Number of pages8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008
Event1st ASME Micro/Nanoscale Heat Transfer International Conference, MNHT08 - Tainan, Taiwan, Province of China
Duration: 6 Jan 20089 Jan 2008

Publication series

Name2008 Proceedings of the ASME Micro/Nanoscale Heat Transfer International Conference, MNHT 2008
VolumePART B

Conference

Conference1st ASME Micro/Nanoscale Heat Transfer International Conference, MNHT08
Country/TerritoryTaiwan, Province of China
CityTainan
Period6/01/089/01/08

Keywords

  • Annular
  • Bubbly
  • Numerical simulation
  • Pressure drop
  • Slug
  • Two-phase flow

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