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Register a new userLong-lived and unstable modes of Brownian suspensions in microchannels
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We investigate the stability of the pressure-driven, low-Reynolds flow of Brownian suspensions with spherical particles in microchannels. We find two general families of stable/unstable modes: (i) degenerate modes with symmetric and anti-symmetric patterns; (ii) single modes that are either symmetric or anti-symmetric. The concentration profiles of degenerate modes have strong peaks near the channel walls, while single modes diminish there. Once excited, both families would be detectable through high-speed imaging. We find that unstable modes occur in concentrated suspensions whose velocity profiles are sufficiently flattened near the channel centreline. The patterns of growing unstable modes suggest that they are triggered due to Brownian migration of particles between the central bulk that moves with an almost constant velocity, and highly-sheared low-velocity region near the wall. Modes are amplified because shear-induced diffusion cannot efficiently disperse particles from the cavities of the perturbed velocity field.
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We investigate the development of mobility inversion and fingering when a granular suspension is injected radially between horizontal parallel plates of a cell filled with a miscible fluid. While the suspension spreads uniformly when the suspension and the displaced fluid densities are exactly matched, even a small density difference is found to result in a dense granular front which develops fingers with angular spacing that increase with granular volume fraction and decrease with injection rate. We show that the time scale over which the instability develops is given by the volume fraction dependent settling time scale of the grains in the cell. We then show that the mobility inversion and the non-equilibrium Korteweg surface tension due to granular volume fraction gradients determine the number of fingers at the onset of the instability in these miscible suspensions.
Shear thickening appears as an increase of the viscosity of a dense suspension with the shear rate, sometimes sudden and violent at high volume fraction. Its origin for noncolloidal suspension with non-negligible inertial effects is still debated. Here we consider a simple shear flow and demonstrate that fluid inertia causes a strong microstructure anisotropy that results in the formation of a shadow region with no relative flux of particles. We show that shear thickening at finite inertia can be explained as an increase of the effective volume fraction when considering the dynamically excluded volume due to these shadow regions
We report a novel technique to passively create strong secondary flows at moderate to high flow rates in microchannels, accurately control them and finally, due to their deterministic nature, program them into microfluidic platforms. Based on the flow conditions and due to the presence of the pillars in the channel, the flow streamlines will lose their fore-aft symmetry. As a result of this broken symmetry the fluid is pushed away from the pillar at the center of the channel (i.e. central z-plane). As the flow needs to maintain conservation of mass, the fluid will laterally travel in the opposite direction near the top and bottom walls. Therefore, a NET secondary flow will be created in the channel cross-section which is depicted in this video. The main platform is a simple straight channel with posts (i.e. cylindrical pillars - although other pillar cross-sections should also function) placed along the channel. Channel measures were 200 mumtimes50 mum, with pillars of 100 mum in diameter. Positioning the pillars in different locations within the cross-section of the channel will result in induction of different secondary flow patterns, which can be carefully engineered. The longitudinal spacing of the pillars is another design parameter (600 mum spacing was used for this video). The device works over a wide range (moderate to high) flow rates. We used 150 muL/min in this experiment. The device has 3 inlets where a dye stream is co-flowed between two water streams. In this video, one can see the effect of the net secondary flow created by inertia in the microchannel by visualizing the cross-section of the fluorescently labeled stream. Confocal images are sequentially taken at the inlet and after 49 consecutive pillars.
At finite Reynolds numbers, Re, particles migrate across laminar flow streamlines to their equilibrium positions in microchannels. This migration is attributed to a lift force, and the balance between this lift and gravity determines the location of particles in channels. Here we demonstrate that velocity of finite-size particles located near a channel wall differs significantly from that of an undisturbed flow, and that their equilibrium position depends on this, referred to as slip velocity, difference. We then present theoretical arguments, which allow us to generalize expressions for a lift force, originally suggested for some limiting cases and Re<<1, to finite-size particles in a channel flow at Re < 20. Our theoretical model, validated by lattice Boltzmann simulations, provides considerable insight into inertial migration of finite-size particles in microchannel and suggests some novel microfluidic approaches to separate them by size or density at a moderate Re.
Experimental and numerical investigations are performed to provide an assessment of the transport behavior of an ultrasonic oscillatory two-phase flow in a microchannel. The work is inspired by the flow observed in an innovative ultrasonic fabric drying device using a piezoelectric bimorph transducer with microchannels, where a water-air two-phase flow is transported by harmonically oscillating microchannels. The flow exhibits highly unsteady behavior as the water and air interact with each other during the vibration cycles, making it significantly different from the well-studied steady flow in microchannels. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling is realized by combing the turbulence Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) k-${omega}$ model with the phase-field method to resolve the dynamics of the two-phase flow. The numerical results are qualitatively validated by the experiment. Through parametric studies, we specifically examined the effects of vibration conditions (i.e., frequency and amplitude), microchannel taper angle, and wall surface contact angle (i.e., wettability) on the flow rate through the microchannel. The results will advance the potential applications where oscillatory or general unsteady microchannel two-phase flows may be present.
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