A note on using VOF method for polymer bead manufacturing

The production of mono-dispersed spherical and non-spherical polymer beads and capsules using micro-fluidics requires precise control of dispersed phase which are distributed in a continuous phase. The prediction of two phase or three phase flow patterns in the mini/micro channels finds its application in production process of such spherical polymers. In the present work a numerical model based flow analysis is done for creation of the spherical/non spherical dispersed air bubbles in a continuous liquid phase. The results are validated with experiments done in a similar liquid–gas flow experiments carried out in a glass mini channel of size 2.05 mm. The flow regime is recorded with a high speed camera. The volume of fluid model in ANSYS Fluent software is used to predict the flow pattern details numerically. The model can be effectively used for predicting the size behavior in such spherical/non-spherical polymer bead production.