Gas-liquid two-phase flow in serpentine microchannel with different wall wettability

Gas-liquid flow in serpentine microchannel with different surface properties exhibits drastically different flow behavior. With water and air as working fluids, the method of numerical simulation was adopted in this paper based on CLSVOF (coupled level set and volume of fluid method) multiphase model. After verifying the reasonability of the model through experiment, by changing wall properties and Re number (Re < 1500), the influences of contact angle and surface roughness on flow regime and Po number were discussed. Moreover, the difference of pressure drop between curve and straight microchannel was also calculated. Beyond that, the combined effect of curve channel and wall properties on flow resistance was analyzed. This paper finds that wall properties have great influence on gas-liquid flow in microchannels not only on flow regime but also flow characteristics. Meanwhile, the pressure drop in curve microchannels is larger than straight. It is more beneficial for fluid flowing when the straight part of microchannel is hydrophilic smooth wall and curve part is hydrophobic with large roughness.