The liquid-liquid flow dynamics and droplet formation in a modified step
T-junction Microchannel
Abstract
The droplet generation mechanism in the step T-junction remains unknown,
especially for the transition stage from dripping to jetting . In this
work, the droplet generation mechanism was systematically investigated
in a novel modified step T-junction. We found that under different fluid
regimes, different factors take action. In dripping regime, the
interfacial tension dominated the formation mechanism when the
surfactant concentration was controlled below micelle concentration
(CMC). In jetting regime, our experimental results showed that the
influence of the surfactant concentration on the size of generated
droplets was rather negligible while the phase ratio indeed determined
such a parameter. In the dripping-jetting transition stage, an abnormal
increase of droplet size was observed despite the increase of continuous
phase flow. To the best for our knowledge, it is the first study to
report generation mechanism in modified step T-junction from dripping to
jetting regimes.