Abstract
Droplet fission has gained notable interest in drug delivery applications due to its ability to perform parallel operations in single device. Hitherto, droplet flow behavior in a 3D constriction was scarcely investigated. This study aims to investigate droplets fission inside a 3D bi-planar multifurcated microfluidic device. The flow behavior and droplet size distribution were studied in trifurcated microchannels using distilled water as dispersed phase (1 mPa·s) and olive oil (68 mPa·s) as continuous phase. Various sizes of subordinate daughter droplets were manipulated passively through the modulation of flowrate ratio (Q) (0.15 < Q < 3.33). Overall, we found droplet size coefficient of variations (CV%) ranging from 0.72% to 69%. Highly monodispersed droplets were formed at the upstream T-junction (CV% < 2%) while the droplet fission process was unstable at higher flowrate ratio (Q > 0.4) as they travel downstream (1.5% < CV% < 69%) to splitting junctions. Complex responses to the non-monotonic behavior of mean droplet size was found at the downstream boundaries, which arose from the deformations under nonuniform flow condition. CFD was used as a tool to study the preliminary maximum velocity (Umax) profile for the symmetrical (0.01334 m/s < Umax < 0.0153 m/s) and asymmetrical branched channels (0.0223 m/s< Umax < 0.00438 m/s), thus complementing the experimental model studies.
Highlights
Microfluidics is defined as the technology that manipulates an extremely small amount of fluid by exploiting microchannels with dimensions of tens to hundreds of micrometers
Existing researches for droplet fission process are commonly performed in a 2-D single planar this research, we have principally demonstrated a simple and versatile droplet fission scheme, from which a bifurcation junction is attached onto an extended T-junction to form a double planar microfluidic chip with distributary channels
This occurs at the point where double planar region begins with increased depth of the channel, resulting in droplets spanning the interface downwards to the extended depth while shrinking in width, which causes the droplet to transform from slug into spherical
Summary
Microfluidics is defined as the technology that manipulates an extremely small amount of fluid by exploiting microchannels with dimensions of tens to hundreds of micrometers. Rapid development of droplet formation techniques in microfluidic devices has occurred as they provide robust and highly controllable platforms for droplet creation and manipulation. These have been used in a diverse range of applications including the production of monodispersed micro particles [9,10,11,12,13,14], enhancement of mixing [15], crystallization of proteins [16], synthesis of nanoparticles [17] and microchemical analysis [18]. The analysis of droplet formation is imperative to understand the device operation and its process control [19].
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