Experimental Study of Gas-Liquid Flow Patterns in Slit Channel with Cross-Junction Mixer

The paper presents results of an experimental study of the structure of gas-liquid flow in a slit microchannel with a cross section of 200\times 1205 μm and an aspect ratio of 1:6. The liquids used were ethanol and distilled water, and the gas was nitrogen; a cross-junction mixer performed the mixing. In the wide ranges of gas and liquid flow rates J_liq=0.02–0.1 m/s and J_gas=0.03–73 m/s, characteristic patterns of gas-liquid flow were determined: the flow with elongated bubbles, transitional flow, stratified flow, stratified-wavy flow, stratified-wavy flow with droplet entrainment, and annular flow. Maps of flow patterns were constructed. The conditions were determined at which the liquid was displaced from menisci to the wide side of microchannel at high gas velocities with formation of wave flow in the liquid film.