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Abstract
This article presents a review of adiabatic two-phase flow in minichannels and microchannels. Differences between them are identified and explained based on this review and our own research. Several channels of decreasing diameter were used in our experiments to determine the effect of the channel size on the two-phase flow of nitrogen gas and water. The effect of channel geometry was examined by characterizing the two-phase flow in a circular and square microchannel of similar size. Only slug flow was observed in the microchannels. Four new sub-classes of slug flow were subsequently defined. A new correlation was developed for the time-averaged void fraction data in the microchannels. The two-phase pressure drop in microchannels was predicted by treating the two phases as being separate with a large velocity difference. Regarding the effect of microchannel geometry, the transition boundaries on the two-phase flow regime maps were shifted for the slug flow subcategories.