2020, 41(10): 1125-1145.
doi: 10.21656/1000-0887.400341
Abstract:
The dynamic behavior of a power-law fluid droplet passing through a T-junction micro-channel and phase diagrams of droplet flow patterns were studied with the lattice Boltzmann method. The effects of power-law exponent n on the droplet deformation characteristics including the neck thickness, the droplet motion distance and phase diagrams of droplet flow patterns were addressed. The numerical results show that, there exist 3 flow patterns for power-law droplets in T-junction micro-channels, i.e., breakup with obstruction, breakup with a tunnel and non-breakup. In the case of breakup with obstruction, the droplet neck thickness decreases with time during the evolution process, and the decrease rate drops with n.At the same time, the droplet tip motion distance increases linearly with time during the evolution process, and the distance also increases with n.In the case of breakup with a tunnel, the droplet neck thickness decreases with time, and the decrease rate drops with n.However, the droplet tip motion distance increases rapidly at first and then slowly, the droplet-wall gap width grows approximately logarithmically with time. Furthermore, the fluctuations of both the droplet neck thickness and the droplet tip motion distance occur in the non-breakup pattern of the droplet. Moreover, it is easier to break up a droplet with a larger value of power-law index n,while it is hard to reach the breakup with obstruction in this case. Eventually, several phase diagrams with power-law correlations for droplet flow patterns were obtained. The fitting functions can be used to describe the critical boundary lines between different flow patterns.