This work visualized water-silicone oil two-phase flow patterns both at the inlet cross-junction and in the main square microchannel with a channel width of 400 μm. Tubing/threading, dripping and jetting were identified at the inlet junction while annular, slug and droplet flows were categorized in the main microchannel at 50 mm downstream of the junction. Flow patterns were represented in terms of superficial velocities and dimensionless numbers. Compared to water-silicone oil flow, addition of surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in water, with a dilute SDS concentration of 1000 ppm, narrows the dripping regime and widens the jetting regime at the inlet junction, while narrows the slug flow regime and widens the droplet flow regime in the main microchannel. A decrease in dynamic interfacial tension due to SDS addition is supposed to be the reason for such a flow pattern modification. Besides, for slug flow, the slug length can be scaled as a power law of the flow rate ratio and the Capillary number of the organic phase. The slug velocity is linearly dependent on the bulk average velocity for both cases with and without SDS addition.

Deposition of colloidal material in evaporating droplets is important in many applications including DNA sequencing and medical diagnostic testing. When colloidal droplets evaporate, the majority of material is often deposited at the periphery of the resultant deposition in a coffee-ring pattern. Formation of this pattern is the result of contact line pinning and the interplay between evaporative and surface tension effects in the droplet. When the contact line is pinned and the evaporative flux in the droplet is highest at the periphery, a radially outward flow is generated to conserve mass that deposits particles in the fluid at the contact line. Evaporation at the contact line can also create a temperature gradient across the droplet. This gradient gives rise to a surface tension driven flow that can resuspend particles in the droplet. When the evaporative flow dominates, particles are deposited at the contact line in a coffee-ring pattern. The presence of the coffee-ring pattern is undesirable in many printing and medical diagnostic processes. Suppression of the coffee-ring effect has been achieved by addition of surfactant, enhancement of surface tension flow, surface modification, alteration of particle shape, and application of an electric field. Manipulation of the coffee-ring effect has been achieved through the application of both AC and DC electric fields. One result of the presence of this field is the electrowetting force at the contact line which acts to reduce the contact angle and increase contact area. Since this force acts at the contact line, it may disrupt typical contact line dynamics, including evaporative dynamics, which are responsible for the formation of the coffee-ring effect. This work will experimentally examine contact line dynamics of evaporating droplets in the presence of DC electric fields. Droplets of water will be desiccated on a device with a photolithographically patterned electrode covered with a thin layer of SU8-3005. Experimental cases with applied DC fields will be compared with unactuated control cases to examine changes in transient interface shape and contact diameter.

In this paper, single-phase liquid and two-phase gas-liquid pressure drop data through 180° return bends have been obtained for horizontal rectangular micro-channel and mini-channel. To investigate the size effects of the test channels, the hydraulic diameters were 0.25 mm and 3 mm respectively as the micro-channel and the mini-channel. The curvature radii of the bends were 0.500 mm and 0.875 mm for the micro-channel, while 6 mm for the mini-channel. To know liquid properties effects, distilled water, surfactant and glycerin aqueous solutions, ethanol and HFE (hydrofluoroether)-7200 were used as the test liquid, while nitrogen gas and air as the test gas. Pressure distributions upstream and downstream tangents of the bend were measured for the single-phase and the two-phase flows. From the pressure distribution data, the bend pressure loss was determined. By analyzing the present data, the bend loss coefficient for single-phase flow in both micro- and mini-channels could be correlated with Dean number. On the other side, the total bend pressure loss for two-phase flows were correlated by using an approach of Padilla et al., in which the total pressure loss is the sum of two pressure drop components, i.e., frictional pressure drop and singular pressure drop. The approach was found to be applicable to the present data for the micro- and the mini-channels if the frictional pressure drop was calculated by Lockhart-Martinelli method with Mishima & Hibiki’s correlation and Kawahara et al.’s correlation and the singular pressure drop was calculated by a newly developed empirical correlation.

In this paper, the three-dimensional (3D) structures of a micellar solution flow in the curvilinear microchannel have been investigated by means of confocal micro particle image velocimetry (PIV). The working fluid is aqueous solution of CTAC/NaSal (cetyltrimethylammonium / Sodium Salysilate). As the flow rate increases, the flow gradually gets into the irregular motion. It is found that the inside flow seems not completely chaotic, but in a manner of oscillation. To be specific, the flow nonlinearity grows as the flow rate increases, the inside flow shows different structures near the wall region and in the bulk due to the elongation of viscoelastic surfactant. Typically, two sub-streams were twisted together, and their flow directions change at the locations where the signs of geometric curvature change. The oscillation stripes represented the area of high extensional stress in the viscoelastic fluid, and were further identified by using polarized high-speed camera. Moreover, statistics shows that the viscoelastic flow field inside the curved microchannel shares the main features of elastic turbulence.

Simple, efficient and compact concentrating systems are of prime importance to the development of portable biosensor based testing solutions for bacterial contamination in potable water. Bacteria are non-uniformly distributed in drinking water and hence testing with small sample volumes does not provide an accurate estimation. Hence bacteria have to be concentrated from large volumes of water of the order of 100 mL as recommended by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to a few hundred microliters to accommodate within portable biosensor platforms like Lab on a Chip (LOC), paper microfluidics and micro-cantilever systems. In the present work, we have developed a simplified, rapid, handheld and field deployable concentrating module which involves filtration of contaminated water through a hollow fiber filter using tangential flow filtration and a subsequent elution step to facilitate the transfer of the concentrated mixture on to a portable biosensor platform. The process involves the collection of water sample in a 5 mL syringe. With the aid of two other syringes, the sample volume is concentrated by passing it through the hollow fiber a couple of times. For improved efficiency, bacteria recovery is performed using 1 mL of a non-ionic surfactant (Tween 20) solution as an elution fluid which is administered by another syringe. The bacteria along with the elution fluid form the required concentrated mixture. This elution strategy was found to be very efficient and the product recovery was close to 85%. With further modification to the current configuration, the system can be developed into a highly efficient pre-concentrating module compatible with any microfluidics based platform.

In the recent years, emulsification technologies that generate droplets individually have attracted a great deal attention in various fields, e.g., for chemicals, cosmetics, foods, and pharmaceuticals. Such drop-by-drop emulsification technologies include membrane emulsification using microporous membranes and microchannel (MC) emulsification, among others. The authors developed MC emulsification chips, consisting of parallel microgrooves or compactly arranged straight through-holes. Using this MC emulsification technique, the authors have evaluated the formulation a two-phase system consisting of size-controlled O/W emulsions loaded with bioactive molecules, such as β-carotene or γ-oryzanol, PUFAs or polyphenols. The MC emulsification process enabled the production of β-carotene-loaded O/W emulsions with average droplet size ( d av ) of 27.6 μm and coefficient of variation (CV) of 2.3% and γ-oryzanol-loaded droplets with d av of 28.8 μm and CV of 3.8%. The highly monodisperse O/W emulsions were physically stable during up 4 months storage in darkness at 5 °C. In addition, we investigated the formation characteristics of O/W emulsion droplets in the presence of electrolyte by MC emulsification using differently charged surfactants. Droplet formation was conducted by pressurizing a dispersed phase (refined soybean oil) through the MC silicon chip into a continuous phase containing 1.0 wt% of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) or polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan monolaurate (Tween 20), and an electrolyte (NaCl) (0–1.0 mol/L). Monodisperse O/W emulsions with an d av of 26 μm and a CV below 5% were produced when the NaCl concentration was lower than a threshold level that is 0.3 mol/L for SDS and 0.5 mol/L for Tween 20. The authors also developed a large MC emulsification device including a newly designed asymmetric MC array chip to realize the mass production of uniformly sized droplets on a liter per hour scale, so that satisfying the minimum droplet productivity needed for industrial-scale production. The large MC emulsification device has a potential droplet productivity exceeding several tons per year, which could satisfy a minimum industrial-scale production of monodisperse microdispersions containing emulsion droplets, microparticles, and microcapsules loaded with bioactive compounds. Such systems have as continuously increasing potential application in the formulation of functional foods, providing a good opportunity to improve the solubility of bioactive compounds, so that increasing their bioavailability.

Pulmonary surfactant is of essential importance in reducing the surface tension on the liquid film that coats the inner surface of the airways and thus making the lung more compliant. Surfactant-deficiency may result in respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), which is especially common in prematurely born neonates. Surfactant replacement therapy (SRT) is a standard treatment, in which a liquid plug with exogenous surfactant is instilled in the trachea, which subsequently propagates by inspiration and spreads the exogenous surfactant to the airways. The efficacy of the treatment depends on various parameters such as the size of the liquid plug, inspiration frequency and the physical properties of the exogenous surfactant. Unsteady simulations are performed to study surfactant-laden liquid plug propagation using finite difference/front-tracking method in order to shed light on the surfactant replacement therapy.

The finite-difference/front-tracking method is used to study the motion and deformation of a large bubble moving through a capillary tube in the presence of both insoluble and soluble surfactants. Emphasis is placed on the effects of surfactant on the liquid film thickness between the bubble and the tube wall. The numerical method is designed to solve the evolution equations of the interfacial and bulk surfactant concentrations coupled with the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. A non-linear equation of state is used to relate interfacial surface tension to surfactant concentration at the interface. The film thickness is first computed for the clean bubble case and the results are compared with the lubrication theory in the limit of small capillary numbers, i.e., Ca ≪ 1, and found to be in good agreement with the predictions of Bretherton [1]. Thereafter, the method is used to investigate the effects of insoluble and soluble surfactants on the film thickness for a wide range of governing non-dimensional numbers. It is found that both the insoluble and soluble surfactants have a thickening effect on the liquid film, which compares well with both the experimental results of Krechetnikov and Homsy [2] and analytical predictions of Daripa and Pasa [3].

The presence of considerable amounts of free charge dispersed in a liquid is the basis for electrokinetic phenomena which are related to the existence of an electrical double layer (EDL). In polar liquids, the dissociation of electrolytes into ionic species is well understood and numerous electrokinetic phenomena are known; a good overview is given by e.g. Delgado et al. [1]. In nonpolar liquids it is known that electrical charges can exist as well. The presence of these electrical charges is utilized, for example, in colloid science to stabilize particle suspensions [2]. For this purpose, surfactants are added which enhance the zeta potential of the particles in order to prevent their agglomeration. Additionally to the manipulation of surface charges, it is reported that the electrical conductivity of nonpolar liquids essentially increases when surfactant is added and traces of water are present [3]. Such ternary solutions of nonpolar liquid-water-surfactant are known to contain surfactant agglomerations, so-called inverted micelles with a size of several nanometers, detectable for instance by quasielastic lightscattering measurements. Figure 1 sketches the generation and structure of an inverted micelle. In general, surfactants are macromolecules consisting of different functional groups, e.g. a polar “head” and a nonpolar “tail”. Above the critical micelle concentration (cmc), surfactant molecules attach with their polar head at a water droplet forming the inverted micelle. It is assumed that electrical charges are dissolved in the polar core of the inversed micelles enabling opposite charges to be held sufficiently far apart and preventing an agglomeration of different micelles [4].

Stable and homogeneous silicone oil based nanofluids of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were prepared by using hexamethyldisiloxane as surfactant. The used MWNTs were cut by mechanical ball-milling approach following strong acid treatment. Scanning electronic microscopy results show that the MWNTs disperse well in the silicone oil. The addition of hexamethyldisiloxane reduces the viscosity of silicone oil greatly in all the studied temperatures. It is different from some water based nanofluids with surfactant. The minor viscosity augmentation of silicone oil based MWNT nanofluid with high thermal conductivity make it the ideal media in high burden of heat transfer and heat transfer enhancement in special condition. As expected, the viscosity of the nanofluid increases with MWNT volume fraction, but decreases with temperature. The 0.54 vol% MWNT dispersions with the addition of 0.6 wt % hexamethyldisiloxane show no MWNT precipitation for a couple of weeks.

In resource-limited settings, it is impractical to get access to a diagnostic laboratory having sophisticated instruments, and it is desirable to use disposable point-of-care diagnostic chips that do not require liquid handling or pumping instruments for sample distribution among an array of reactors. In addition to the pump-less sample loading method, the challenge to seal an array of reactors without the use of microvalves or mechanical parts still persists. Implementation of microvalve array adds complexity to the chip fabrication and operation processes, and also reduces the space on the microchip. In this paper, we report the development of a high-throughput quantitative PCR chip platform for parallel analyses of multiple gene targets. The PCR mixture distribution among an array of 80 microreactors and subsequent isolation of the reactors were solely realized by a two-step surface tension-based microfluidic scheme, which eliminates the use of pumps, valves and liquid handling instruments. Confinement of the PCR mixture inside the micro reactors was achieved by implementing hybrid flow-restriction passive valves. The microreactors were isolated from each other by the flow of a curable liquid sealant delivered through microchannels by capillary action. We also investigated the effect of detergents that are present in most commercial PCR buffers. Presence of detergents makes the PCR buffer much more wetting on the passive capillary valve surface and this imposes another challenge to the design of the conventional hydrophobic patch valves which has been successfully used for deionized water. We demonstrated a successful capillary valve array with a common air venting channel having a hydrophobic surface for restricting the flow of PCR buffer containing surfactant. The interconnected microreactor array was fabricated on a glass chip substrate with approximate volume of 250 nl microreactor volume for PCR. A different set of PCR primers were preloaded into different microreactor on the PCR array chip for simultaneous amplification of multiple genes. Fluorescent signals from all the microreactors were simultaneously detected at every PCR thermal cycle using EvaGreen fluorescent dye on an in-house real-time PCR instrument. The capability of the scalable PCR array chip was demonstrated by amplifying a fragment of uidA gene for beta-glucuronidase of E. coli genome. Key technical issues related to chip operation such as PCR inhibition on the acid-washed glass substrate, and PCR compatibility of the sealant in both the uncured and cured states have been addressed.

Liquid-liquid segmented flows in microchannels fabricated on polymer test chips were investigated experimentally. Polymer test chips were prepared using hot embossing of polycarbonate (PC) sheets with micro-milled brass mold inserts. Three different configurations of microchannels were prepared with injection to test channels expansion ratios of 16, 4 and 2 and a fixed test channel geometry. Deionized water with blue food-coloring dye (1% v/v) was used as a dispersed fluid at flow rates ( Q D ) between 0.5 and 60 μl /min. The carrier fluid was perfluorocarbon (FC 3283) with nonionic fluorous-soluble surfactant (Perfluorooctanol, 10% v/v) at flow rates ( Q C ) between 3 and 25 μ l/min. The two fluids were injected separately into the chips. Droplet and Plug flows with transient Irregular Segmented flows between two flow regimes were mainly observed in the test channels of the three different chips. Flow pattern maps and transitions between flow regimes were determined in terms of a fixed homogeneous carrier fluid volumetric flow ratio ( β C ) to compare the effect of the expansion ratios from the injection to the test channels. The droplet and plug regimes were shifted to higher carrier and lower dispersed fluid superficial velocities and the plug flow regime was broader with the lower expansion ratio channels. The transient irregular segmented flow was favored in the higher expansion channel ratio and the interval of transient irregular segmented flow between droplet and plug flow regimes were shorter for the low expansion channel ratios. This is evidence that flow regime maps in micro-channels are not universal and depend on the configuration part of the micro-injection system. The length of the dispersed segmented flows and the distance between consecutive droplets or plugs as a function of β C were determined by image processing of frames acquired via CCD camera with bright field illumination. The average length of the dispersed fluid was shown to scale approximately with β C to the −1.2 power. Velocities of the dispersed droplet and plug flows were measured using double-pulsed laser illumination and were found to be 1.25 ± 0.049 and 1.46 ± 0.077 times faster than the superficial velocity of the segmented flow respectively. Two-phase pressure drop measurements were also carried out for all flow regimes and associated trends were correlated with changes in flow topology. Comparisons of experimental pressure drop with the predictions for a modified Lockhart-Martinelli correlation were also made.

This paper reports an experimental investigation of the pool boiling heat transfer characteristics of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)-nanofluids. Two main characteristics were studied to identify their influence on boiling heat transfer: one is the surface tension through the addition of surfactant and the other is the chemical treatment of nanotubes sidewalls (i.e. oxidized and untreated sidewalls). A Transmission Electron Microscope was used to study the morphology of the functionalized nanotubes and their deposition on heater wire. The maximum enhancement of both the critical and burnout heat fluxes of this nanofluid over those of the pure deionized water are found to be 492% and 265%, respectively at a surfactant to carbon nanotubes concentration ratio of 1:5. This indicates that high enhancement of heat flux is possible and would depend on the concentration of the surfactants. Present results also demonstrate that CNT-nanofluids in a pool boiling environment can extend the saturated boiling regime and the burnout of the heated surface. The burnout heat flux is found to be a strong function of the relaxation of nanofluid surface tension with the base fluid. Based on the best fit of experimental data, an empirical correlation between the burnout heat flux of nanofluid and its relaxation of surface tension is introduced.

We report a method to prepare surfactant-free water based nanofluids containing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The as prepared CNTs with hard dispersibility, after being cut by mechanical ball-milling approach following strong acid treatment, can be directly dispersed into water. The thermal conductivity of the nanofluids is optimized by controlling the CNT length and straightness. It is realized by changed the ball-milling times. The thermal conductivity enhancement of water based CNT nanofluids with volume fraction of 1% attains 29.5% by controlling the CNT length and straightness when the temperature is 63.9°C.

This paper investigates the droplet behavior in serially connected diffuser/nozzle structures using experimental and simulation methods. The serial structures act as diffusers in the expanding flow direction, and as nozzles in the converging flow direction. The opening angle of the structures is 45 degree. The test devices were fabricated in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using soft lithography technique. The droplets under investigation were formed using T-junctions. Mineral oil with 2%w/w surfactant Span 80 and de-ionized (DI) water with fluorescent dye work as the carrier phase and the dispersed phase, respectively. The droplet behavior was captured using a CCD camera. The corresponding pressure drops across the test section were measured in both diffuser and nozzle flow direction using an external pressure sensor connected to the pressure port integrated on the device. The pressure drops across the test structure of two cases, with and without droplet, were analyzed and compared. The experimental results showed a linear relationship between the pressure drop and the oil flow rate. Furthermore, rectification effect was observed in the test device. The pressure drop in the diffuser configuration is higher than that of the nozzle configuration. Numerical models were employed to study the dynamics of the pressure drop across the diffuser/nozzle structures as well as the deformation of the droplet, which is modelled using level-set method. Corresponding to the experiments, two cases with and without were investigated and compared.

Solutions of flexible high-molecular-weight polymers or some kinds of surfactant can be viscoelastic fluids. The elastic stress is induced in such viscoelastic fluids and grow nonlinearly with the flow rate and results in many special flow phenomena, including purely elastic instability in the viscoelastic fluid flow. The elastic flow instability can even result in a special kind of turbulent motion, the so-called elastic turbulence, which is a newly discovered flow phenomenon and arises at arbitrary small Reynolds number. In this study, we experimentally investigated the peculiar flow phenomena of viscoelastic fluids in several different microchannels with curvilinear geometry by visualization technique. The viscoelastic working fluids were aqueous solutions of surfactant, CTAC/NaSal (cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride/Sodium Salysilate). CTAC solutions with weight concentration of 200 ppm (part per million) and 1000 ppm, respectively, at room temperature were tested. For comparison, water flow in the same microchannels was also visualized. The Reynolds numbers for all the microchannel flows were quite small (for solution flows, the Reynolds numbers were smaller than 1) and the flow should be definitely laminar for Newtonian fluid. It was found that the regular laminar flow patterns for low-Reynolds number Newtonian fluid flow in different microchannels were strongly deformed in solution flows: either asymmetrical flow structures or time-dependent vortical flow motions appeared. These phenomena were considered to be induced by the viscoelasticity of the CTAC solutions.

Nucleate pool boiling heat transfer increases with certain liquid mixtures and some coatings over the heater’s surface. The effects of these modifications are best measured by the relative values of the convective heat transfer coefficient that quantify the ability for transferring heat. The mechanisms that increase pool boiling heat transfer are reflected in the formation of smaller bubbles that escape away from the heater’s surface at a higher velocity, than those formed under not enhanced conditions. The bubble diameter depends on a chemical effect from the liquid composition acting at the bubble’s interface, and on the physical effect of the porous coverings to break the bubbles and to allow the resulting vapor flow. The reduction in bubble diameter in liquid mixtures comes from the action of intermolecular forces at the liquid-vapor interface similar to those associated to surfactants. Several studies have concentrated on increasing the heat transfer coefficient in pool using surfactants in concentrations close to the critical micelle concentration (cmc) of the surfactant in the liquid. The surfactants achieve the highest reduction of bubble diameter by accommodating the lowest surface of their molecules at the interface. However, the mixture of 16% ethanol in water also showed an increase in the convective heat transfer coefficient by producing the lowest size of bubbles from any other ethanol-water mixture. Surface tension and sessile drop contact angle for this mixture have a behavior similar to the cmc; therefore, the mixture effect on boiling is explained through the presence of ethanol-hydrated-states accommodated at the interface. Other liquid mixtures, containing propylene glycol, ethylene glycol, ethanol and water, with cmc behavior had been found through surface tension and sessile contact angle measurements, and showed that they increased the heat transfer coefficient. The mechanical effect that increases the heat transfer coefficient with porous coverings has been explained as the breaking of emerging bubbles at the heater’s surface and the proper handling of the resulting vapor flow away from the covering. Experiments with a mesh located at a distance half the bubble diameter, at a specific power supplied, released the bubbles from the heater before finishing its formation increasing their departure frequency. An array of layers of the same mesh produced and additional increment in the heat transfer coefficient if the array is accommodated to favor the gas flow out of the heater’s region.

Experiments were performed with clear water and with surfactant flowing in parallel triangular micro-channels. The study is based on systematic measurements of temperature and flow pattern by infrared radiometry and high-speed digital video imaging. Different flow patterns were observed simultaneously in various micro-channels at a fixed value of water or surfactant flow rates. Depending on flow and heat flux, pressure and temperature instabilities in the heated micro-channels were studied. This work develops a practical modeling approach for two-phase micro-channel heat sinks and considers also effect of surfactant on convective boiling in micro-channels.

Air-liquid two-phase flow in a horizontal flat capillary rectangular channel has been studied to clarify the effects of concentration of surfactant solution on the flow phenomena, such as flow patterns, pressure drop, void fraction and so on. The concentrations of surfactant solution were 0, 10, 50 and 100 ppm and the surface tension of each solution was reduced to about 34mN/m from that of pure water of about 72mN/m. The dimension of the channel used was 10.0 mm × 1.0 mm. The drag reduction by mixing the surfactant was examined in both the single phase flow and the two-phase flow. The experimental data of two-phase frictional pressure drop and holdup were compared with the respective correlations which were previously proposed by the other researchers and the present authors. Finally, we proposed new correlations of two-phase frictional pressure drop and holdup in which the effect of surface tension and the aspect ratio of cross section of channel were taken into account.

The complex interfacial phenomena involved in two-phase gas-liquid flow have defied mathematical simplification and modeling. However, the systems are used in heat exchangers, condensers, chemical processing plants, nuclear reactor systems, and fuel cells. The present work considers a 1 mm square minichannel and adiabatic flows corresponding to practical PEM fuel cell conditions. Pressure drop data is collected over mass fluxes of 4.0 to 33.6 kg/m 2 s, which correspond to superficial gas and liquid velocities of 3.19–10 m/s and 0.001–0.02 m/s respectively. The experiments are repeated with water of reduced surface tension, caused by the addition of surfactant, in order to quantify the surface tension effects, as it is recognized that surface tension is an important parameter for two-phase flow in minichannels. The accuracy of various two-phase pressure drop models is evaluated. A new model for laminar-laminar flow is developed.