Abstract
Fluid slugs generated by a microchannel T-junction have various applications such as emulsion, micro reactor, microbubbles and so on. For these applications, it is required to elucidate formation mechanism of slug flow and control the size of two phase slugs. We study the influences of flow rate with slug length for the purpose of understanding the cause of fluctuation of slug length. We used the T-shaped microchannel with a width of 100 μm and a depth of 95 μm in the experiment. It is made of glass and silicon by anodic bonding, and it has hydrophilic surface in the micro channel. The slug flow was generated at T-junction of the microchannel by using pure water as continuous phase and silicone oil as dispersed phase which viscosity is 1 cs as the working fluid. We observed formation of slugs at T-junction in detail with measuring pressure by using a optical fiber micro pressure sensor. It was measured that pressure fluctuation which does not correspond to cycle of formation of slug and we observed length of two phase slugs fluctuated with opposite correlation. We studied correlation of length of two-phase slugs with the equation proposed by Garstecki.
