Ayeni Oluwaseyi O, Stretz Holly A, Vasel-Be-Hagh Ahmad
Department of Chemical Engineering, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN 38501, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA.
Micromachines (Basel). 2025 Apr 1;16(4):425. doi: 10.3390/mi16040425.
Fiber extractors, as process-intensified equipment, facilitate many applications, such as the purification of oils. The development of high-fidelity computational models is crucial to optimize the design. However, simulating microscale flows around tens of thousands of microfiber arrays is computationally unfeasible. Thus, it is necessary to identify smaller elements, consisting of only a few fibers, that can represent flow within massively arrayed fiber extractors. This study employed computational fluid dynamics to investigate different configurations of four-fiber elements to achieve this aim. Following previous modeling featuring flow around only one fiber, the goal was to understand how variations in inter-fiber distances affect the phase structures of a corn oil/water mixture, the steady-state interfacial surface area per unit of fluid volume, and the pressure drop along the flow direction. The study explored various total and relative flow rates and contact angles. The research characterized the flow as semi-restricted annular, noting the influence of neighboring fibers on phase complexity. The inter-fiber distance played a crucial role in generating high interfacial areas and reducing pressure. The chaotic nature of the slug interfaces facilitated intermixing between flows along different fibers. Interestingly, the specific interfacial area reached an optimum when the inter-fiber distance was between 10 and 50 μm.
纤维萃取器作为一种过程强化设备，可促进许多应用，例如油的提纯。高保真计算模型的开发对于优化设计至关重要。然而，模拟数万个微纤维阵列周围的微观流动在计算上是不可行的。因此，有必要识别仅由几根纤维组成的较小单元，这些单元能够代表大规模排列的纤维萃取器内的流动。本研究采用计算流体动力学来研究四纤维单元的不同构型，以实现这一目标。继之前仅围绕一根纤维进行流动建模之后，目标是了解纤维间距的变化如何影响玉米油/水混合物的相结构、单位流体体积的稳态界面表面积以及沿流动方向的压降。该研究探讨了各种总流速和相对流速以及接触角。该研究将流动表征为半受限环形，注意到相邻纤维对相复杂性的影响。纤维间距在产生高界面面积和降低压力方面起着关键作用。弹状界面的混沌性质促进了沿不同纤维的流动之间的混合。有趣的是，当纤维间距在10至50μm之间时，比界面面积达到最佳值。
