Narrow Results

The gelling process of particle suspension in a capillary which is crucial for in-situ preparing small size foam products has been simulated with an off-lattice diffusion limited cluster aggregation (DLCA) model by the three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations. The effects of the model parameters, such as the interaction between capillary wall and particles, particle volume fraction, capillary size etc. on the density distribution of the system have been fully explored. And the aggregation kinetics process over a broad range of volume fractions and interactions have also been discussed. The results show that the geometric constraint of capillary can be analogous to a weak repulsive interaction between capillary wall and particles. And we found that as the capillary size or particle volume fraction increase, particle concentration distribution will be more uniform with other parameters constant. Porous network with relatively uniform density distribution can be also obtained through controlling the interaction between capillary wall and particles. In addition, by analyzing the aggregation kinetics process, we found that the attraction of capillary wall dramatically reduces the probability of gelation in the small-scale capillary. The obtained results will be of great importance in controlling the density distribution of porous materials prepared by in-situ methods.

In microfluidic chips, most micro-channel cross-section shapes are rectangular or triangular in existing chip fabricating technologies, including hot embossing, lithography, etching, injection molding, etc. However, compared with the above micro-channel shapes, a circular shape has advantages in aspects of fluid flow, droplet generation, heat transfer and blood vessel replication. This paper presents a sandwich-like microfluidic chip with circular cross-section micro-channels. The sandwich-like structure includes three layers. The top and bottom layers are PDMS material while the middle layer is composed of micron glass capillaries (used as micro-channels) with circular cross-sections. The glass capillaries are made of borosilicate tube by a glass heating process. Sphere shaped paraffin wax is used as a sacrificial material to form micro-channel junctions. To test the functions of the fabricated micro sandwich-like microfluidic chip, a droplet generating experiment was conducted in the T-junction chip. The droplet size can be controlled in the range of 20–400 $\mu$m by varying the water and oil flow rates. This proposed microfluidic chip structure has the advantages of short processing cycle, low cost and small flow resistance.

Qualitative analysis of a mathematical model for capillary formation is presented under assumptions that enzyme and fibronectin concentrations are in quasi-steady state. The aim of this paper is to prove mathematically that the long-time tendency of endothelial cells will be towards the transition probability density function of enzyme and fibronectin. Endothelial cell steady-state solution is obtained and a numerical simulation is provided to show that there is a close agreement between the steady-state solution obtained analytically and the numerically calculated steady-state of the related initial value problem, which provides strong evidence for the stability of this steady-state.

In this paper, a fractal model for capillary flow through a single tortuous capillary with roughened surfaces in fibrous porous media is derived. The determined imbibition height and imbibition mass of capillary rise are in satisfying agreement with the existing models reported in the literature. It is found that the imbibition height and imbibition mass of capillary decreases with increasing relative roughness. Besides, it is observed that the equilibrium time in a single tortuous capillary with roughened surfaces decreases with an increase in relative roughness. In addition, it is seen that the imbibition height and imbibition mass of capillary rise increases with imbibition time. With the proposed fractal model, the physical mechanisms of capillary flow through a single tortuous capillary with roughened surfaces in fibrous porous media are better elucidated. One advantage of our fractal analytical model is that it contains no empirical constant, which is usually required in previous models.

The effects of the relevant parameters on the flow characteristic of R134a flowing through adiabatic helical capillary tubes were experimentally studied. The capillary tubes' diameter, coil diameter, and parameters relating to flow conditions such as inlet pressures and degree of subcooling were the major parameters investigated. The test section was made from copper tubing with inner diameters of 1.07, 1.27, and 1.62 mm. The coil diameters were 25, 50, and 100 mm. The local pressure and temperature distributions along the length of the capillary tubes were measured at inlet pressures ranging from 10 to 14 bar, mass flow rates from 8 to 20 kg/h, and degrees of subcooling from 0.5°C to 15°C. The metastable flow and the delay of vaporization of R134a are also presented and discussed. The results showed that the capillary diameter had more of a significant effect on the mass flow rate than the other variables.

This paper presents numerical and experimental results of the flow characteristics of R134a flowing through adiabatic helical capillary tubes. The local pressure distribution along the length of the capillary tubes is measured at inlet pressures ranging from 10 to 14 bar, mass flow rates from 8 to 20 kg h^-1, and degrees of subcooling from 0.5°C to 15°C. The theoretical model is based on conservation of mass, energy and the momentum of the fluids in the capillary tube. The model is divided into three regions: subcooled liquid region, metastable liquid region and equilibrium two-phase region and can be applied for various tube geometries, new alternative refrigerants and critical or noncritical flow conditions. The model is validated by comparing results from the present experimental data with that of the available literature. Based on the comparison results, the model used in the present study provides reasonable agreement with the experimental data.

Mal-distribution of refrigerant in a cross-flow type evaporator with parallel paths is very important, which can lead to a loss of heat exchanger capacity to 25%. Distributors are used to balance the two-phase refrigerant distributions in each path. Apart from the structural factors, there are other factors influencing the performance of distributor greatly. In this paper, influences of several nonstructural factors on reservoir distributor are investigated experimentally under varied working conditions. The inlet tube configuration, installation orientation and capillary tube length are also studied. One experiment apparatus is developed to measure the refrigerant mass flow rate and the quality based on R410A air conditioner. It is found that influence caused by inlet tube before the distributor is small. The average STD is only 2.76%. Influence caused by orientation is broad. The average STD is less than 9% on the orientation of 15°. On the orientation of 90°, STDs of different conditions are all more than 40%. For orientation, mass flow rate sensitivity is larger than quality sensitivity. Capillary tubes with different length can be used to adjust distribution. Average STD with sizable capillary length difference is 9.47%. It means that only small mal-distribution can be adjusted by using different-length capillary tubes. Capillary tube length sensitivity increases with the increase of difference between outlet tubes or the decrease of average length of outlet tubes.

Microbial fuel cells have gained popularity as a viable, environmentally friendly alternative for the production of energy. However, the challenges in miniaturizing the system for application in smaller devices as well as the short duration of operation have limited the application of these devices. Here, the capillary motion was employed to design a self-pumped paper-based microbial fuel cell operating under continuous flow condition. A proof-of-concept experiment ran approximately 5 days with no outside power or human interference required for the duration of operation. Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 was used to create a maximum current of 52.25 µA in a 52.5 µL paper-based microfluidic device. SEM images of the anode following the experiment showed biofilm formation on the carbon cloth electrode. The results showed a power density of approximately 25 W/m³ and proved unique capabilities of the paper-based microbial fuel cells to produce energy for an extended period of time.