Geometrically-mediated snap-off of water-in-oil emulsion droplets in microfluidic flow focusing devices

Flow Focusing in Microfluidic Devices

This paper presents numerical analysis of the hydrodynamic flow focusing in rectangular microchannels. The low Reynolds number pressure driven flow in symmetric system of crossed channels with three inlets and one outlet is investigated. The numerical model is used to elucidate the origin of broadening of the focused flow sheet observed experimentally close to the side walls of the outlet chann...

Parallelization of microfluidic flow-focusing devices.

Microfluidic flow-focusing devices offer excellent control over fluid flow, enabling formation of drops with a narrow size distribution. However, the throughput of microfluidic flow-focusing devices is limited and scale-up through operation of multiple drop makers in parallel often compromises the robustness of their operation. We demonstrate that parallelization is facilitated if the outer pha...

Geometrically mediated breakup of drops in microfluidic devices.

Microfluidic technology offers capabilities for the precise handling of small fluid volumes dispersed as droplets. To fully exploit this potential requires simultaneous generation of multiple size droplets. We demonstrate two methods for passively breaking larger drops into precisely controlled daughter drops using pressure-driven flow in simple microfluidic configurations: (i) a T junction and...

Focusing in Microfluidic Devices

The role of feedback in microfluidic flow-focusing devices.

A model was developed for the analysis of steady and unsteady bubble generation frequencies in a microfluidic flow-focusing device. In both cases, the generation frequency depends on the downstream influence of bubbles created by the flow-focusing device, which provides a source of feedback. For steady-state generation of bubbles, this feedback explains the relationships among frequency, gas pr...