Abstract
Water-in-oil droplets have huge importance in chemical and biotechnology applications, despite their difficulty being produced in microfluidics. Moreover, existing studies focus more on the different shape of microchannels instead of their size, which is one of the critical factors that can influence flow characteristics of the droplets. Therefore, the present work aims to study the behaviours of water-in-oil droplets at the interfacial surface in an offset T-junction microchannel, having different radiuses, using micro-PIV software. Food-grade palm olein and distilled water seeded with polystyrene microspheres particles were used as working fluids, and their captured images showing their generated droplets’ behaviours focused on the junction of the respective microfluidic channel, i.e., radiuses of 400 µm, 500 µm, 750 µm and 1000 µm, were analysed via PIVlab. The increasing in the radius of the offset T-junction microchannel leads to the increase in the cross-sectional area and the decrease in the distilled water phase’s velocity. The experimental velocity of the water droplet is in agreement with theoretical values, having a minimal difference as low as 0.004 mm/s for the case of the microchannel with a radius of 750 µm. In summary, a small increase in the channel’s size yields a significant increase in the overall flow of a liquid.
Highlights
The droplet in the microchannel with a radius of 400 μm evolved faster over time compared to the droplet in the channel with a radius of 750 μm, and at t4 = 636 ms, the front tip of droplet started to exceed the junction point
The present work aims at studying the behaviours of distilled water droplet formation suspended in food-grade palm olein at the interfacial surface in offset T-junction microchannels, having radiuses of 400 μm, 500 μm, 750 μm and 1000 μm, by means of micro-PIV
The experimental velocity of the distilled water phase is in agreement with theoretical values, i.e., radiuses of 400 μm, 500 μm and 750 μm microchannels have a minimal difference of 0.008 mm/s, 0.06 mm/s and
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Microfluidic devices have been developed significantly for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), microchemical technology and micrototal analysis systems (μTAS). They are used to a great extent in biotechnology applications. Multiphase flow, especially two-phase flow, occurs frequently in these applications [1]
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