Turbulence in microfluidics: Cleanroom-free,fast, solventless,and bondless fabrication and application in high throughput liquid-liquid extraction

This paper addresses an important breakthrough in the deployment of ultra-high adhesion strength microfluidic technologies to provide turbulence at harsh flow rate conditions. This paper is only, to our knowledge, the second reporting on the generation of high flow rate-assisted turbulence in microchannels. This flow solves a crucial bottleneck in microfluidics: the generation of high throughput homogeneous mixings. We focused on the fabrication of bulky polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchips (without any interfaces) rather than the laborious surface modifications that were employed in the first reporting about turbulence-assisted microfluidics. The fabrication is cleanroom-free, simple, low-cost, fast, solventless, and bondless requiring only a laboratory oven. More specifically, our method relies on the shaping of a nylon scaffold, cure of PDMS with embedded nylon, and removal of this scaffold. The scaffold was obtained by manually wrapping nylon threads. The withdrawing out of the scaffold was completed in few seconds using only a plier. Such microchannels endured flow rates of up to 60.0 mL min⁻¹ with a strikingly low elastic deformation. The importance in producing turbulence into microscale channels was successfully shown in liquid-liquid extractions. The great energy dissipation rate relative to the turbulence created high throughput and efficient extractions in microfluidics for the first time. The residence time was only 0.01 s at 25.0 mL min⁻¹ (total flow rate of the immiscible phases). In addition, the partition coefficient determined in a single run was similar to that obtained by the conventional batch shake-flask method that was realized in triplicate.     

The impact of loops on the game of cops and robbers on graphs

In the game of cops and robbers on graphs, the cops and the robber are allowed to pass their turn if they are located on a looped vertex. This paper explores the effect of loops on the cop number and the capture time. We provide examples of graphs where the cop number almost doubles when the loops are removed, graphs where the cop number decreases when the loops are removed, graphs where the capture time is quadratic in the number of vertices and copwin graphs where the cop needs to move away from the robber in optimal play.     

The MAP/PH/N retrial queue in a random environment

We consider the MAP/PH/N retrial queue with a finite number of sources operating in a finite state Markovian random environment. Two different types of multi-dimensional Markov chains are investigated describing the behavior of the system based on state space arrangements. The special features of the two formulations are discussed. The algorithms for calculating the stationary state probabilities are elaborated, based on which the main performance measures are obtained, and numerical examples are presented as well.     

Modelling and simulation of gas dynamics in an exhaust pipe

The gas dynamics in an exhaust pipe is studied. In particular we focus on the warm up of the catalytic converter in very short times after the engine start. This is done by combustion a small unburnt part of the exhaust gas. This process is classically modelled by gas dynamic equations. Compared to the existing literature we improve the (one-dimensional) modelling approach using a small Mach number technique and a network ansatz for the full exhaust pipe. The final simplified model on one hand still describes the main features and on the other hand it is computationally a few orders of magnitude faster than the original model. Performing numerical simulations we compare the new model to the (classical) full model and to experimental results in the literature.     

Numerical investigation of natural convection heat transfer of nanofluids in a Γ shaped cavity

This paper analyzes the heat transfer and fluid flow of natural convection in a Γ shaped enclosure filled with Al₂O₃/Water nanofluid that operates under differentially heated walls. The Navier–Stokes and energy equations are solved numerically. Heat transfer and fluid flow are examined for parameters of non-uniform nanoparticle size, mean nanoparticle diameter, nanoparticle volume fraction, Grashof number and different geometry of enclosure. Finite volume method is used for discretizating positional expressions, and the forth order Rung-Kuta is used for discretizating time expressions. Also an artificial compressibility technique was applied to couple continuity to momentum equations. Results indicate that using nanofluid causes an increase in the heat transfer and the Nusselt number so that for R = 0.001 in Gr = 10³, the Nusselt number 25%, in Gr = 10⁴ 26%, and in Gr = 10⁵ 28% increases. Furthermore; by decreasing the mean diameters of nanoparticles, Nusselt number increases. By increasing R parameter (d_p,min/d_p,max) and nano particle volume fraction, Nusselt number increases.     

Analysis of a meshless solver for high Reynolds number flow

In this paper, the extension of an upwind least‐square based meshless solver to high Reynolds number flow is explored, and the properties of the meshless solver are analyzed both theoretically and numerically. Existing works have verified the meshless solver mostly with inviscid flows and low Reynolds number flows, and in this work, we are interested in the behavior of the meshless solver for high Reynolds number flow, especially in the near‐wall region. With both theoretical and numerical analysis, the effects of two parameters on the meshless solver are identified. The first one is the misalignment effect caused by the significantly skewed supporting points, and it is found that the meshless solver still yields accurate prediction. It is a very interesting property and is opposite to the median‐dual control volume based vertex‐centered finite volume method, which is known to give degraded result with stretched triangular/tetrahedral cells in the near‐wall region. The second parameter is the curvature, and according to theoretical analysis, it is found in the region with both large aspect ratio and curvature, and the streamwise residual is less affected; however, the wall‐normal counterpart suffers from accuracy degradation. In this paper, an improved method that uses a meshless solver for the streamwise residual and finite difference for wall‐normal residual is developed. This method is proved to be less sensitive to the curvature and provides improved accuracy. This work presents an understanding of the meshless solver for high Reynolds number flow computation, and the analysis in this paper is verified with a series of numerical experiments. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Binding numbers for fractional ID-k-factor-critical graphs

LetG be a graph,and k≥2 be a positive integer.A graph G is fractional independentset-deletable k-factor-critical(in short,fractional ID-k-factor-critical),if G I has a fractional k-factor for every independent set I of G.The binding number bind(G)of a graph G is defined as bind(G)=min|NG(X)||X|:=X V(G),NG(X)=V(G).In this paper,it is proved that a graph G is fractional ID-k-factor-critical if n≥6k 9 and bind(G)(3k 1)(n 1)kn 2k+2.     

Two optimal Dai–Liao conjugate gradient methods

Two adaptive choices for the parameter of Dai–Liao conjugate gradient (CG) method are suggested. One of which is obtained by minimizing the distance between search directions of Dai–Liao method and a three-term CG method proposed by Zhang et al. and the other one is obtained by minimizing Frobenius condition number of the search direction matrix. Global convergence analyses are made briefly. Numerical results are reported; they demonstrate effectiveness of the suggested adaptive choices.     

A new approach in modeling of constant temperature boundary condition in thermal lattice‐Boltzmann method

The lattice‐Boltzmann method is being applied to a diversity of fluid flow and heat transfer problems nowadays. Because of its microscale nature, strict attention should be paid when introducing macroscopic inputs to the model. One of the challenging issues dealing with macroscale and microscale treatment is the implementation of boundary conditions. In this regard constant‐temperature boundaries are frequently used in energy transfer problems. Such boundaries are simply modeled in Navier–Stokes based solvers, but they are not so harnessed in lattice‐Boltzmann models. One of the problems is that the calculated tangential heat flux is not zero along such boundaries in most of the previous models. In the present paper, a model has been developed, which has the capability of controlling tangential heat flux along the constant‐temperature boundaries. It aims to set the heat flux nearly zero along the boundary in midplane grid schemes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.