Abstract

This effort is focused on studying fluid instabilities in microfluidic devices using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis to provide preliminary data for suborbital microgravity flight experiments. The experiments will utilize a lens-free imaging (LFI) system to capture and measure fluidic data. Various CFD models were created using Star-CCM+ to determine predicted Saffman-Taylor (viscous fingering patterns) instabilities in microfluidic devices using liquids with opposite viscosities. Lab data shows that channel height and inlet nozzle angles of the devices are dominant in the changing behavior of the instabilities. This study will focus on these parameters to further validate CFD results. It is expected that the device geometries will have a large impact on fluid instabilities in the microfluidic domain.

Volume Subject Area:
Multiphase Flow (MFTC)
Keywords:
computational fluid dynamics, fluid instability, lens-free imaging, microfluidics, channel flows
Topics:
Computational fluid dynamics, Fluids, Imaging, Lenses (Optics), Microfluidics
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