CFD simulations of a capillary force driven two-phase flow in the anode flow-field of passive-feed μdmfc

Abstract

The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results of a capillary-driven flow in a 100 µm serpentine flow-field are presented. A two-dimensional (2D) numerical model based on a conservative level set method (LSM) was developed and solved using a commercial software program called COMSOL Multiphysics. During reinitialisation of the level set function, a good conservation of the liquid phase area was achieved. Both the respective back and the front interfaces in the 300 µm reservoir and in the microchannel were monitored. Fluctuations were initial evident in the reservoir interface which later subsided. The front interface in the serpentine microchannel assumed an almost constant velocity