Transport of non tracer particles in simple flows

Abstract

An experimental study on the behaviour of transported particles in a flow of simple geometry has been developed. A pair of
millimetric channels that cross at 0°, with a shunt between them where two miscible fluids are inyected at constant flow rate. One
of the fluids is a solution of dye (passive tracer) as well as microbeads (non passive tracer) of neutral buoyancy. The other fluid is
made of the same solution but without any tracer. For the systematic study of the particle trajectories an experimental tracking
method has been set up. The experiments have been recorded with a high spatial and temporal resolution camera coupled to a
low power microscope. The images have been analysed with a coded processing program developed in our laboratory. The
trajectories of the particles, with different Reynolds number, have been analysed, in order to obtain the distribution, speed and
bead concentration at each outlet as a function of the used parameters and have been compared with previous results on similar
geometries and miscible fluids.