Microscopic Mechanism for Gradient Diffusion of Salt-Containing Droplets Induced by Electromagnetic Synergy: A Molecular Dynamics Study

The electromagnetic synergy has been proven to be highly effective in separating oil-water emulsions. However, the dynamic impact mechanism of electromagnetic fields on the internal structure of salt droplets remains unclear. In this study, the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was used to investigate the molecular diffusion of salt ions and water molecules, as well as the dynamic behavior of droplets under the combined influence of electromagnetic fields. The results indicate that ions accumulate in the electromagnetic synergistic field, causing the deformation amplitude of droplets to be smaller than that in a single electric field. The magnetic field affects the energy of the system, when the magnetic field strength is between 1 and 5T, the nonbonded energy significantly increases nonlinearly; when the magnetic field strength is greater than 5T, the total energy of the system significantly changes. In addition, the viscosity of the medium is significantly lower when the intensity of the magnetic and electric fields is controlled within a specific range, providing a new way to regulate the fluidity of fluids.

Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability Augmented by von Kármán Vortex Shedding during an Oil Droplet Impact on a Water Pool

The impact of an oil droplet on a water surface has been explored with the aid of computational fluid dynamics simulations. The study reveals the details of the spatiotemporal evolution of such a ternary system with a triplet of interfaces, e.g., air-water, oil-water, and oil-air, when the impact velocity of the oil droplet with the water surface is high. The oil droplet is found to flatten, spread, stretch, and eventually dewet on the water surface of the deep crater to show a host of interesting post-impact flow morphologies. Furthermore, at higher impact velocities, the formation of a biphasic oil-water crown is observed followed by the ejection of secondary water droplets from the crown tip due to capillary instability. The rapidly spreading oil film on the "crater" of the water surface is found to undergo Kelvin-Helmholtz instability before dewetting the same due to cohesion failure. Subsequently, the formation of an array of secondary oil droplets is observed during the process of dewetting. The dominant wavelength evaluated from the linear stability analysis of a representative flow system could faithfully predict the simulated spacing of dewetted oil droplets floating on the crater. Importantly, the variations in Laplace pressure around the curvatures of the undulatory interfaces along with sharp viscosity gradients across the three-phase contact line is found to engender interesting recirculation patterns, which eventually shed to form a coherent wake region in air near the crater. We also uncover the conditions under which the counter-rotating vortices shed along the oil-water interface resembling a von Kármán vortex street.

Influence of the pre-impact shape of an oil droplet on the post-impact flow dynamics at air-water interface

We computationally explore the effects of pre-impact shape of an oil droplet on the spatiotemporal dynamics after the droplet impacts an air-water interface. Simulations reveal that the initial shape of the impacting oil-droplet alters the post-impact transient flow structures during the evolution. The spherical and oblate drop spreads over the crater to manifest interesting flow morphologies including the formation of oil-toroids and compound oil-droplets. However, the prolate drop impinges much deeper into the water pool after impact to create a few more exclusive flow features, such as, interface overturning, vortex shedding and formation of secondary droplets. The temporal variation of the crater depth shows distinct three stage dynamics, which can be explained by the generic energy analysis of the entire system. The combined theoretical and numerical energy analyses reveal the influences of the pre-impact drop shape and their effects on the subsequent energy conversion after the impact takes place. The analysis also reveals that the initial surface and kinetic energies are different for non-spherical droplets than for the spherical ones. The conversion of such excess surface energy due to the non-spherical curvature into kinetic energy dictates the impact and subsequently the crater dynamics of such systems. Such influences largely lead to the exclusive flow patterns demonstrated here. Concisely, this study presents a tri-phasic computational model, which is capable of analyzing the salient features of the impact and splash dynamics of the non-spherical droplets into a water continuum.

Magnetic-field- and thermal-radiation-induced entropy generation in a multiphase nonisothermal plane Poiseuille flow

The effect of radiative heat transfer on the entropy generation in a two-phase nonisothermal fluid flow between two infinite horizontal parallel plates under the influence of a constant pressure gradient and transverse noninvasive magnetic field have been explored. Both fluids are considered to be viscous, incompressible, immiscible, Newtonian, and electrically conducting. The governing equations in Cartesian coordinates are solved analytically with appropriate boundary conditions to obtain the velocity and temperature profile inside the channel. Application of a transverse magnetic field is found to reduce the throughput and the temperature distribution of the fluids in a pressure-driven flow. The temperature and fluid flow inside the channel can also be noninvasively altered by tuning the magnetic field intensity, temperature difference between the channel walls and the fluids, and several intrinsic fluid properties. The entropy generation due to the heat transfer, magnetic field, and fluid flow irreversibilities can be controlled by altering the Hartmann number, radiation parameter, Brinkmann number, filling ratio, and ratios of fluid viscosities and thermal and electrical conductivities. The surfaces of the channel wall are found to act as a strong source of entropy generation and heat transfer irreversibility. The rate of heat transfer at the channel walls can also be tweaked by the magnetic field intensity, temperature differences, and fluid properties. The proposed strategies in the present study can be of significance in the design and development of next-generation microscale reactors, micro-heat exchangers, and energy-harvesting devices.

Fabricating an Electrospray Ionization Chip Based on Induced Polarization and Liquid Splitting

The coupling of the microfluidic chip to mass spectrometry (MS) has attracted considerable attention in the area of chemical and biological analysis. The most commonly used ionization technique in the chip–MS system is electrospray ionization (ESI). Traditional chip-based ESI devices mainly employ direct electrical contact between the electrode and the spray solvent. In this study, a microchip ESI source based on a novel polarization-splitting approach was developed. Specifically, the droplet in the microchannel is first polarized by the electric field and then split into two sub-droplets. In this process, the charge generated by polarization is retained in the liquid, resulting in the generation of two charged droplets with opposite polarities. Finally, when these charged droplets reach the emitter, the electrospray process is initiated and both positive and negative ions are formed from the same solution. Preliminary experimental results indicate that the coupling of this polarization-splitting ESI (PS-ESI) chip with a mass spectrometer enables conventional ESI-MS analysis of various analytes.

A coupled continuum-statistical model to predict interfacial deformation under an external field

HYPOTHESIS

Coupling the continuum approach with a statistical one may help in the development of a generic thermodynamic model to theoretically analyse the variations of interfacial tension and subsequent deformation of an interface between a pair of fluids under a field exposure. In this direction, the local variations of interfacial tension due to the redistribution of interfacial molecules have been expressed as the functions of the molecular interaction potentials for a variety of externally applied fields.

NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS

Two continuum-statistical models for interfacial tension have been developed by choosing two different types of molecular interaction potentials. The proposed analytical models have been successfully integrated with the Cahn-Hilliard and Navier-Stokes framework before solving them numerically using computational tools.

FINDINGS

Effects of field exposure on the redistribution of the molecules and the molecular interaction potentials can be correlated to the local variations of the interfacial tension and interfacial deformations. The calculations related to thetemperature dependence ofinterfacialthickness andinterfacialtension matches well with the experimental data. The simulated results show a nearly accurate prediction of the pre-existing experimental and theoretical results on interfacial deformation under electric, magnetic and optical fields.

Characterization of Microchannel Replicability of Injection Molded Electrophoresis Microfluidic Chips

Microfluidic chips have been widely applied in biochemical analysis, DNA sequencing, and disease diagnosis due to their advantages of miniaturization, low consumption, rapid analysis, and automation. Injection molded microfluidic chips have attracted great attention because of their short processing time, low cost, and mass production. The microchannel is the critical element of a microfluidic chip, and thus the microchannel replicability directly affects the performance of the microfluidic chip. In the current paper, a new method is proposed to evaluate the replicability of the microchannel profile via the root mean square value of the actual profile curve and the ideal profile curve of the microchannel. To investigate the effects of injection molding parameters (i.e., mold temperature, melting temperature, holding pressure, holding time, and injection rate) on microchannel replicability, a series of single-factor experiments were carried out. The results showed that, within the investigated experimental range, the increase of mold temperature, melt temperature, holding pressure, holding time, and injection rate could improve microchannel replicability accuracy. Specifically, the microchannels along the flow direction of the polymer melt were significantly affected by the mold temperature and melt temperature. Moreover, the replicability of the microchannel was influenced by the distance from the injection gate. The effect of microchannel replication on electrophoresis was demonstrated by a protein electrophoresis experiment.

Electric field assisted multicomponent reaction in a microfluidic reactor for superior conversion and yield

We explore the improvements in yield and conversion of a chemical reaction inside a two-phase microfluidic reactor when subjected to an externally applied alternating current (AC) electric field. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) framework has been developed to incorporate the descriptions of the two-phase flow, multicomponent transport and reaction, and the Maxwell's stresses generated at oil-water interface owing to the presence of the externally applied electric field. The CFD model ensures that the reactants are flown into a microchannel together with the oil and water phases before the reaction takes place at the interface and products diffuse back to the bulk phases. The study unveils that the variation in the intensity of the AC field helps in converting a two-phase stratified flow into an oil-in-water microemulsion composed of oil slugs, plugs, or droplets. Importantly, the results also suggest that harnessing the vortices inside or outside these flow patterns helps in the improvement in mass transfer across the interface, which can be employed to improve the yield and conversion of a reaction. We have shown an example case of a pseudo-first order reaction for which the variation in frequency and intensity of AC field is found to form higher surface-to-volume-ratio flow patterns having a higher throughput. The convective recirculation in and around these miniaturized flow morphologies increase the rate of mass transfer, mixing of reactant and products, conversion of reactant, and yield of products. The results reported can be of significance in the design and development of future advanced-flow rector technologies.

Cross-stream migration of drops suspended in Poiseuille flow in the presence of an electric field

The present study focuses on the cross-stream migration of a neutrally buoyant two-dimensional drop in a Poiseuille flow in a channel under the influence of an electric field. In the absence of an electric field, the important nondimensional parameters describing this problem are the viscosity ratio (λ) between the drop fluid and the surrounding medium, the ratio of drop diameter to channel height (a^{*}), and the capillary number (Ca). The influence of all these parameters on drop migration is investigated. It is observed that a large drop moves slowly as compared to a smaller drop, but attains a steady shape at the center line of the channel. The increase in value of the capillary number enhances the cross-stream migration rate, while the increase in viscosity ratio reduces the tendency of the drops to move towards the channel center line. The presence of an electric field introduces additional interfacial stresses at the drop interface, which in turn alters the dynamics observed in the absence of an electric field. Extensive computations are carried out to analyze the combined effect of the electric field and the shear flow on the cross-stream migration of the drop. The computational results for a perfect dielectric indicate that the droplet migration enhances in the presence of an electric field. The permittivity ratio (S) and the electric field strength (E) play major roles in drop migration and deformation. Computations using the leaky dielectric model also show that for certain combinations of electrical properties the drop undergoes immense elongation along the direction of the electric field. The conductivity ratio (R) is again a vital parameter in such a system of fluids. It is further observed that for certain conditions the leaky dielectric drops exhibit rotation together with translation.