Large eddy simulation and experiment of shear breakup in liquid-liquid jet: Formation of ligaments and droplets

Understanding the shear breakup in jet flows and the formation of droplets from ligaments is important to determine the final droplet size distribution (DSD). The initial droplet size, which affects the final DSD, is considered to be generated by the shear breakup. Large eddy simulation (LES) was performed to investigate the shear breakup in liquid-liquid jet flows. The explicit Volume of Fluid (VOF) model with the geometric reconstruction scheme was used to capture the oil-water interface. The estimated oil distribution including wave peaks, ligaments, droplets and water streaks were compared to the experiments with a good agreement. The estimated DSD matched with the measurements favorably well. In the simulation, the formation of droplets with a smooth and curved surface from ligaments or sheet-like structures was obtained. Different mechanisms were observed along with the shear layer including the formation of droplets from ligament through the capillary forces, breakage of a droplet into smaller ones and attachment of a droplet to a ligament. The destructive shear forces and resisting surface tension forces were quantified on stretching and retracting ligaments. The influence of internal viscous force was found to be negligible due to low oil viscosity. The critical capillary number was found to be larger than 5.0 for ligaments breaking with the shear breakup. The capillary number was below unity for retracting ligaments. The coalescence of two equal-sized droplets was obtained in the shear breakup region. The shear stress magnitude at the contact region increased more than two folds. The total surface area decreased nearly 20% after the coalescence.     

Ionic Interface-effects in Electro-optical LC-cells

The work discusses ionic electrode processes in LC-cells driven by voltage. Ions in LC-material are generated by dissociation of residual impurities or (dye) additives, but by ageing of LC-material as well. Therefore even in carefully purified electro-optical cells temporal decomposition of the base material causes slow, but permanent increase of ion concentration. It is apparently manifesting in non-linear electrical response of LC-cell in the case of quick switching by pulse driving. Every change of voltage on cell electrodes induces re-charging process and causes flow of the space-charge limited current across LC-layer. Existence of the ions influences electro-optical performance of LC-cell. The ionic flow changes field distribution in LC-layer and can temporary distort molecular ordering. Ionic processes may superimpose an undesired intrusion on optical switching response of LC-cell and may result either in faster or in slower switching, depending on driving source parameters. In this paper we propose a simple model of ionic processes to explain the mechanism of non-linear ionic polarisation. Observed voltage - polarisation characteristics, space-charge current flow and an anomalous electro-optical behaviour of LC-cell can be explained by the model assumed. Concentration of the considered ions, their mobility, and activation energy is also evaluated.     

A Review on Microfluidics: An Aid to Assisted Reproductive Technology

Infertility is a state of the male or female reproductive system that is defined as the failure to achieve pregnancy even after 12 or more months of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. Assisted reproductive technology (ART) plays a crucial role in addressing infertility. Various ART are now available for infertile couples. Fertilization in vitro (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and intrauterine insemination (IUI) are the most common techniques in this regard. Various microfluidic technologies can incorporate various ART procedures such as embryo and gamete (sperm and oocyte) analysis, sorting, manipulation, culture and monitoring. Hence, this review intends to summarize the current knowledge about the application of this approach towards cell biology to enhance ART.     

Formation of ZnO,MgO and NiO Nanoparticles from Aqueous Droplets in Flame Reactor

Nanoparticles of ZnO, MgO and NiO were produced from droplets of aqueous salt solution in the flame spray pyrolysis reactor. Conventional spray pyrolysis, in which electrical furnace reactor is used, is reported to produce nanoparticles only from acetate precursor. If the reactor pressure is low (60torr), nitrate salt precursor is also known to produce nanoparticles. In this paper, we report that nanoparticles are produced from nitrate as well as acetate salt precursor solution when propane–oxygen diffusion flame is used to decompose aqueous aerosol droplets. At low flame temperature, however, nanoparticles are not formed and the particle morphology is similar to the morphology produced by the conventional spray pyrolysis. At high flame temperature, nanoparticles are formed, regardless of the salt type. Nanoparticles are formed at lower flame temperature from acetate salts than from nitrate salts. All nanoparticle prepared in this work were fully crystallized and the size measured from transmission electron microscopy images was 30nm. This size agreed well with the particle size calculated from X-ray diffraction and specific surface area data.     

液滴与液面碰撞时发生环形穿人的条件

在自由落下的液滴与液面碰撞的实验中,蔡一坤发现环形穿入现象,它的出现与下落高度之间有某种周期性关系,蔡文根据实验结果整理出了经验公式,本文从液滴的自由振动出发,得到了与实验结果符合得更好的公式,从而为环形穿入提供了理论解释。     

Electrophoresis of a highly charged fluid droplet in dilute electrolyte solutions: Analytical Hückel-type solution

An analytical formula is presented here for the electrophoresis of a dielectric or perfectly conducting fluid droplet with arbitrary surface potentials suspended in a very dilute electrolyte solution. In other words, when the Debye length (κ⁻¹) is very large, or κa$\ll$1, where κ is the electrolyte strength and a stands for the droplet radius. This formula can be regarded as an extension of the famous Hückel solution valid for weakly charged rigid particles to arbitrarily charged fluid droplets. The formula reduces successfully to the ones obtained by Booth for a dielectric droplet, and Ohshima for a perfectly conducting droplet, both under Debye–Hückel approximation valid for weakly charged droplets. Moreover, the formula is valid for a gas bubble and a rigid solid particle as well. Classic results obtained by Hückel for a rigid particle are reproduced as well. We found that for a dielectric droplet, the more viscous the droplet is, the faster it moves regardless of its surface potential, contrary to the intuition based on the purely hydrodynamic consideration. For a perfectly conducting liquid droplet, on the other hand, the situation is reversed: The less viscous the droplet is, the faster it moves. The presence or absence of the spinning electric driving force tangent to the droplet surface is found to be responsible for it. As a result, an axisymmetric exterior vortex flow surrounding the droplet is always present for a dielectric liquid droplet, and never there for a conducting liquid droplet.     

A review on continuous-flow microfluidic PCR in droplets: Advances,challenges and future

Significant advances have been made in developing microfluidic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) devices in the last two decades. More recently, microfluidic microdroplet technology has been exploited to perform PCR in droplets because of its unique features. For example, it can prevent crossover contamination and PCR inhibition, is suitable for single-cell and single-molecule analyses, and has the potential for system integration and automation. This review will therefore focus on recent developments on droplet-based continuous-flow microfluidic PCR, and the major research challenges. This paper will also discuss a new way of on-chip flow control and a rational design simulation tool, which are required to underpin fully integrated and automated droplet-based microfluidic systems. We will conclude with a scientific speculation of future autonomous scientific discoveries enabled by microfluidic microdroplet technologies.     

Self‐Powered Multimodal Temperature and Force Sensor Based‐On a Liquid Droplet

Herein we report a self‐powered multimodal temperature and force sensor based on the reverse electrowetting effect and the thermogalvanic effect in a liquid droplet. The deformation of the droplet and the temperature difference across the droplet can induce an alternating pulse voltage and a direct voltage, respectively, which is easy to separate/analyze and can be utilized to sense the external force and temperature simultaneously. In addition, an integral display system that can derive information from external temperature/force concurrently is constructed. Combined with advantages of excellent sensing properties and a simple structure, the droplet sensor has promising applications in a wide range of intelligent electronics.     

共聚焦拉曼光谱研究过饱和硝酸铵液滴中NH4+, NO3- 和H2O之间的相互作用

将硝酸铵液滴沉积在石英基底上,通过降低该液滴周围环境的相对湿度,测定了该液滴由低浓度直至过饱和状态下高信噪比的拉曼光谱.其中,相对湿度的变化可以精确控制液滴浓度的改变.在相对湿度(RH)由72.1%降低至37.9%的过程中,硝酸铵液滴v1-NO-3峰位保持在1048cm-1,半峰宽为10cm-1.该现象表明NO-3周围的水分子被NH4+取代后不会对v1-NO-3造成影响,说明水分子和NH4+所形成的氢键具有相同的强度.对2500-4000cm-1范围内的拉曼光谱进行成分分析,2890、3090、3140、3220、3402及3507cm-1分别被指认为NH+4伞状弯曲振动的泛频、NH+4伞状弯曲振动与摇摆振动的组合谱带、NH+4的对称伸缩振动、NH+4的反对称伸缩振动、水峰中强氢键成分和弱氢键成分.从拟合结果得出:强氢键在氢键结构中所占百分含量随液滴相对湿度的降低而减少,弱氢键所占百分含量随液滴相对湿度的降低而增加.该变化趋势是NO-3和NH+4之间复杂相互作用的结果.     

20 μm单微液滴的产生和特性研究

利用阴影成像法对毛细管喷嘴生成单微液滴的特性进行了观测，研究了单微液滴生成的具体过程，以及气体背压，调制频率和调制电压对单微液滴产生的影响，优化了生成大小和空间分布均匀单微液滴的条件.结果表明：调制频率在0.8—1.8MHz之内，调制电压10V，背推压3.5MPa是获得20μm单微液滴的最佳条件.