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Oscillation of an isolated liquid plug inside a dry capillary

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Abstract

The present work reports an experimental study on the dynamics of partially wetting isolated liquid plug (DI water), which is made to oscillate inside a square, glass capillary tube (1 mm × 1 mm; 60 mm length). The liquid plug is made to oscillate pneumatically at two different frequencies (0.25 and 0.35 Hz), using a cam-follower mechanism. Bright field imaging is used to visualize the three-phase contact line behavior, while, micro-Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) apparatus is used to discern the nature of flow inside the oscillating liquid plug. During a cycle, due to the partial wetting nature of DI water, the three-phase contact line at the menisci gets pinned at the extreme end of each stroke, where the dynamic apparent contact angle gets drastically altered before the initiation of the next stroke. The difference between the apparent contact angle of the front and rear meniscus are seen to be a function of the oscillating frequency; the difference increasing with increasing frequency. The flow inside the liquid plug reveals unique non-Poiseuille flow features near the meniscus, due to free-slip boundary condition, which leads to formation of distinct vortex pairs behind it. The vortices too change their direction during each stroke of the oscillation, eventually leading to an alternating recirculation pattern inside the plug. The results clearly indicate that improved mathematical models are required for predicting transport parameters in such flows, which are important in engineering systems such as pulsating heat pipes, lab-on-chip devices and PEM fuel cells.

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Abbreviations

d :

Hydraulic diameter (m)

f :

Frequency (Hz)

L :

Length of stroke (m)

t :

Time (s)

u :

x-velocity component (m/s)

v :

y-velocity component (m/s)

x :

Interface displacement (m)

Bo:

Bond number (\( \frac{\rho {gD}^2}{\sigma} \))0.5

Ca:

Capillary number (\( \frac{\mu V}{\sigma} \))

Re:

Reynolds number \( \left(\frac{\rho VD}{\mu .}\right) \)

St:

Strouhal number \( \left(\frac{f{ d}^2}{v}\right) \)

We:

Weber number \( \left(\frac{\rho D{V}^2}{\sigma}\right) \)

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

μ :

Dynamic Viscosity (N∙s/m2)

v :

Kinematic viscosity (m2/s )

σ :

Surface tension (N/m)

ω :

Angular frequency (rad/s)

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Acknowledgements

This research was conducted by the grants given by the Indo-French Center for Promotion of Advanced Research (IFCPAR/CEFIPRA). Equipment budget also came from IIT Kanpur internal funding CARE scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, 208016, India

    Vyas Srinivasan, Siddhartha Kumar, Mohammed Asfer & Sameer Khandekar

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  1. Vyas Srinivasan
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  2. Siddhartha Kumar
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  3. Mohammed Asfer
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  4. Sameer Khandekar
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Correspondence to Sameer Khandekar.

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Srinivasan, V., Kumar, S., Asfer, M. et al. Oscillation of an isolated liquid plug inside a dry capillary. Heat Mass Transfer 53, 3353–3362 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-017-2064-x

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