Optofluidic droplet router

This contribution presents an optofluidic droplet router which is able to route and steer microdroplets using optically induced forces created solely by the bulk photovoltaic effect on a nonlinear substrate. The combination of microfluidic tools with the properties of a photorefractive crystal allows for the generation of dielectrophoretic forces that can be either repulsive, leading to virtual barriers, or attractive, creating virtual rails. The sign of these forces is solely determined by the electrical properties of the liquid medium under investigation. Moreover, the induced structures on the bottom of the microfluidic channel are optically reconfigurable, so that the same device can easily be adopted for different purposes. Appropriate droplet‐generating devices are fabricated by UV illumination of SU‐8 and polydimethylsiloxane replica molding of the master structures. The bottom of the channels is formed by an iron‐doped lithium niobate crystal, whose internal electric fields are induced by structured illumination patterns and exert dielectrophoretic forces on droplets in the microfluidic section.

     

Nanochannels and nanodroplets in polymer membranes controlling ionic transport

Polymer materials with low water uptake exhibit a highly heterogeneous interior characterized by water clusters in the form of nanodroplets and nanochannels. Here, based on our recent insights from computer simulations, we argue that the water cluster structure has large implications for ionic transport and selective permeability in polymer membranes. Importantly, we demonstrate that the two key quantities for transport, the ion diffusion and the solvation free energy inside the polymer, are extremely sensitive to molecular details of the water clusters. In particular, we highlight the significance of water droplet interface potentials and the nature of hopping diffusion through transient water channels. These mechanisms can be harvested and fine-tuned to optimize selectivity in ionic transport in a wide range of applications.     

Numerical analysis of swirling turbulent droplet-laden flow and heat transfer in a sudden pipe expansion

The effect of swirling intensity on the structure and heat transfer of a turbulent gas–droplet flow after a sudden pipe expansion has been numerically simulated. Air is used as the carrier phase, and water, ethanol, and acetone are used as the dispersed phase. The Eulerian approach is applied to simulate the dynamics and heat transfer in the dispersed phase. The gas phase is described by a system of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, taking into account the effect of droplets on mean transport and turbulent characteristics in the carrier phase. Gas phase turbulence is predicted using the second-moment closure. A swirling droplet-laden flow is characterized by an increase in the number of small particles on the pipe axis due to their accumulation in the zone of flow recirculation and the action of the turbulent migration (turbophoresis) force. A rapid dispersion of fine droplets over the pipe cross-section is observed without swirling. With an increase in swirling intensity, a significant reduction in the length of the separation region occurs. The swirling of a two-phase flow with liquid droplets leads to an increase in the level of turbulence for all three types of liquid droplets investigated in this work due to their intensive evaporation. It is shown that the addition of droplets leads to a significant increase in heat transfer in comparison with a single-phase swirling flow. The greatest effect of flow swirling on heat transfer intensification in a two-phase gas-droplet flow is obtained for the droplets of ethanol and water and smallest effect is for the acetone droplets.     

Viscosity based droplet size controlling in negative pressure driven droplets generator for large‐scale particle synthesis

The poor control and regulation of droplets limit the applications of negative pressure driven droplet generator (NPDDG). Here, we present a simple method to control droplet size in NPDDG via varying the oil viscosity. Depending on the infinite intersolubility of high viscous mineral oil and low viscous hexadecane, we obtain a series of oils with kinematic viscosities linearly varied from 4.2 to 194.6 mm²/s. By using these oils as continuous phases, monodisperse droplets are fabricated with controllable size in NPDDG. This viscosity‐based droplet regulation method is effective, reliable, and compatible with scale‐up processes. Compared with droplet generator driven by positive pressure, the presented method can fabricate hydrogel particles massively, without complicated multilayer chip structure and complex fluid controlling, which may extend the potential of NPDDG in droplets based high‐throughput assay or large‐scale materials synthesis.     

Effects of phase explosion in pulsed laser deposition of nickel thin film and sub-micron droplets

Nickel (Ni) thin films were deposited on glass substrates in high vacuum and at room temperature with third-harmonic or 355-nm output from a nanosecond Nd:YAG laser. At low laser fluence of 1 J/cm², the deposition rate was about 0.0016 nm/shot which increased linearly until 4 J/cm². Above 4 J/cm², the onset of phase explosion in the ablation abruptly increased the optical emission intensity from laser-produced Ni plume as well as thin-film deposition rate by about 6×. The phase explosion also shifted the size distribution and number density of Ni droplets on its thin-film surface. On the other hand, the surface structures of the ablated Ni targets were compared between the scan-mode and the fixed-mode ablations, which may suggest that droplets observed on the thin-film surface were caused by direct laser-induced splashing of molten Ni rather than vapour-to-cluster condensation during the plume propagation.     

Behavior of the surface of a bubbly liquid after detonation wave impact

In safety engineering, one position of interest inside heterogeneous systems of the type liquid–gas is the contact surface between these two phases. Under certain conditions, e.g. shock wave impact, phenomena can take place at this position that can have a significant influence on the explosion behavior of the system. In this work an investigation is presented about the existence of such phenomena on the surface of liquid cyclohexane with or without the existence of oxygen containing bubbles. The observations have been performed during the time before, as well as after, a detonation wave reflection on that surface. High-speed pressure and optical measurements have been applied. Apart from the experimental observations, also a theoretical analysis and discussion is presented in this contribution, which contains the comparison between calculated and experimental values.     

Droplet break-up through an oblique shock wave

The interaction of a two-phase flow with a wedge where a stationary shock wave is initially settled is studied in a two-dimensional configuration. Before the introduction of the dispersed phase, the flow around the wedge is a supersonic one phase flow such as an attached stationary shock wave is present. Then, the dispersed phase is introduced upstream the initial position of the stationary shock wave. The purpose of this study is to point out two-phase and droplets break-up effects on the oblique shock wave. The two-dimensional equations are solved by a TVD scheme where fluxes are computed by using Riemann solver for the gas phase equations and also for the dispersed phase equations wich is an original approach due to the authors (Saurel et al. 1994). In addition to drag forces and heat and mass transfers, the process of droplets fragmentation based on the particle oscillation is considered. Accepted April 28, 1995     

Modeling droplet dispersion and interphase turbulent kinetic energy transfer using a new dual-timescale Langevin model

Dispersion of spray droplets and the modulation of turbulence in the ambient gas by the dispersing droplets are two coupled phenomena that are closely linked to the evolution of global spray characteristics, such as the spreading rate of the spray and the spray cone angle. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent gas flows laden with sub-Kolmogorov size particles, in the absence of gravity, report that dispersion statistics and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) evolve on different timescales. Furthermore, each timescale behaves differently with Stokes number, a non-dimensional flow parameter (defined in this context as the ratio of the particle response time to the Kolmogorov timescale of turbulence) that characterizes how quickly a particle responds to turbulent fluctuations in the carrier or gas phase. A new dual-timescale Langevin model (DLM) composed of two coupled Langevin equations for the fluctuating velocities, one for each phase, is proposed. This model possesses a unique feature that the implied TKE and velocity autocorrelation in each phase evolve on different timescales. Consequently, this model has the capability of simultaneously predicting the disparate Stokes number trends in the evolution of dispersion statistics, such as velocity autocorrelations, and TKE in each phase. Predictions of dispersion statistics and TKE from the new model show good agreement with published DNS of non-evaporating and evaporating droplet-laden turbulent flow.     

Alteration of the profile of ink-jet-deposited UV-cured lenses using applied electric fields

Microlens arrays and microoptical components in general are integral components in a wide range of high-tech products. The ability to fabricate such elements cheaply and with a high degree of accuracy is vital for the development of the next generation of optics-based technologies. There are currently a wide range of microoptical element fabrication technologies. These techniques all have advantages and disadvantages and no one technique is yet sufficient to meet all possible application criteria. One method that has been examined recently is the ink-jet deposition method. This method applies well-established ink-jet printer technology and is thus one possible candidate for large-scale fabrication of inexpensive components. The lenses fabricated using this method are normally found to have spherical profiles. In this paper, we examine the possibility of modifying the profile of these spherical lenses using an applied electric field (E-field). We note that the resulting aspheric lenses have a wide number of applications. These include beam shaping and power transfer applications including fiber coupling. In this paper we describe initial experiments involving single lenses. The single lenses produced using applied E-Fields differ significantly from lenses produced with no applied E-field.