Reconstructing the 3D shapes of droplets in glass microchannels with application to Bretherton’s problem
in: Experiments in Fluids (2014)
The outstanding potential of absorbance imaging for the 3D shape analysis of dynamic scenes in multiphase flows is demonstrated and experimentally confirmed. The experimental procedures and workflows have been extended and applied to the 3D shape analysis of droplets moving in micro channels. Using this technique, the problem of measuring the thickness of the lubrication layer and the droplet geometry geometry with sub-$mu m$ resolution could be solved. The obtained data generally conform to models based on Bretherton's theory and allow its extension even for non-circular micro channel geometries.