(300i) Phenomenological Model of Air-Water Distribution in Dichotomic Structured Microchannels with Stochastic Differential Equation

Numbering-up, a definite route for commercially application of microchannel reactors, faces great challenge in uniformly distributing fluid flow in every channel, especially for multiphase systems. A model of stochastic differential equations (SDEs) is proposed to well quantify the stochastic trajectories of gas bubbles and liquid slugs in parallel microchannels interconnected with two dichotomic distributors. A long-term measurement of optical system with a fast sampling speed was built to continually monitor the passage of bubble trains in order to sample for parameters estimation. Analytical expressions of expectation and variance of sub flow rates were deduced mathematically by the SDEs and Fokker-Planck equation, a bifurcation in the trajectory is found by using the original model. Then a modification on interactions of feedback and crosstalk is introduced, the evolutions match well with experimental results. The established methodology is helpful for characterizing the flow uniformity and operation of numbering-up microchannel reactors of multiphase system.