Numerical Analysis of Mass Transfer Rate in Droplet Flow at Microscopic Scales

S. Cito[1], T. Sikanen[1]
[1]Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Published in 2014

Droplet flow at microscopic scale is often used to enhance many pharmaceuticals and industrial processes (i.e. liquid–liquid micro-extraction, nanoparticle synthesis, slow reactions in microfluidic devices, etc.). In all these processes, the mass transfer rate, at the interface between the droplets and the surrounding fluid of diluted reactants plays a key role. This work at analyzing numerically the mass transfer rates during the two phase flow of droplets generated by a micro-nozzle. The results shows that increasing the density ratio, between the two fluids, the rate at which the reactant is diluted, from the drop to the surrounding fluid, increase consistently. With these results on hand, pharmaceutical and industrial devices that use droplet physics can be designed more rationally.

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