Splitting Dynamics of Liquid Slugs at a T-Junction
- Song Xue,
- Zhibing Yang,
- Ran Hu,
- Yi-Feng Chen
Song Xue
State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Author ProfileRan Hu
State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Author ProfileYi-Feng Chen
State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Author ProfileAbstract
Understanding the mechanisms of liquid movement through fracture
intersections is important for prediction of fluid flow and solute
transport in unsaturated fractured media. Here we present a quasi-static
model to predict the dynamic splitting behavior of liquid slugs at a
T-junction, as a simplified representation of a fracture intersection
and consisting of a main channel and a branch channel. The proposed
model is validated against carefully controlled visualization
experiments. We find that there exists a critical initial slug length at
which the splitting behavior shifts from flow dominated by the main
channel to that dominated by the branch. The influence of key
parameters, including the inclination angle of the junction, the channel
widths, and the dynamic contact angles, on the splitting dynamics is
systematically investigated. We show that the splitting ratio depends
non-monotonically on the relative width of the branch channel to the
main channel. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the dynamic contact
angles have a profound impact on the splitting ratios and meniscus
velocities. It is shown that taking velocity-dependent contact angle
into account is essential to predict the meniscus velocities and the
dynamic flow process.