The formation of droplet encapsulating particles in a Y-typed microchannel

Abstract

Droplet encapsulating particles has great potentials in microfluidic measurement and detection in many fields, such as biomedicine and food science. It is of great importance to investigate the formation of droplet encapsulating particles in microchannel. In this paper, considering the influence of channel angle, particle size, and volume fraction, VOF model and DPM model are combined to systematically study the formation of droplet containing particles in a Y-typed microchannel. The simulation results show that the particle size and concentration significantly influence the formation of droplet. In addition, in comparison with the formation of simple droplet, the angle of Y-typed microchannel and particles have synergistic effect on the droplet formation. The present work is of help for the precise control on the formation of droplet encapsulating particles, which is highly required for the following measurement and detection.