Experimental measurement of flow distribution in a parallel mini-channel fluidic network using PIV technique

Abstract

Fluid flow distribution among parallel channels usually play an important role on the global performance improvement of tubular process equipment, but remains difficult to be properly measured by experimental methods. This paper presents a systematic study on the measurement of flow distribution in a multi-channels fluidic network using PIV technique. For the precise measurement of flow-rate in each individual channel, standard 2D-2C PIV technique is used to obtain velocity vectors on multiple sampling planes parallel to the flow direction, so as to reconstruct accurate velocity profiles on the cross-sectional surface. Such procedure is repeated for every channel to obtain the actual flow distribution properties in the fluidic network. Pre-test results on a double-channels device indicate that the maximum possible deviation of PIV measurements is 13.1% with respect to those of a flange flowmeter, implying that the PIV technique is relatively accurate and reliable. PIV results on the flow distribution in a 15-channels fluidic network are then compared with CFD simulation results under the same working conditions. A quite good agreement could be observed. Moreover, the locations and sizes of vortices in the distributor have a significant influence on the flow distribution.