Purely elastic instabilities in a microfluidic flow focusing device

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2017

Authors

Ballesta, P (Author) Other; Alves, MA (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Physical Review Fluids

Vol. 2

Publisher: American Physical Society

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 3 Citations

Scopus - 5 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00M-SBR

DOI: 10.1103/physrevfluids.2.053301

Abstract (EN): In this work, we investigate the behavior of dilute and semidilute polymer solutions flowing in a microfluidic flow focusing device, in which an inlet stream is stretched by two balanced lateral streams. By varying the flow rates in the inlet and lateral channels and their ratio, several types of flow transitions are observed and the resulting velocity fields are analyzed both upstream and downstream of the intersection. At high flow rates, the flow becomes chaotic and the path to this state depends on both the Weissenberg number and the imposed Hencky strain. The thresholds of successive elastic instabilities leading to the chaotic state are also investigated using time-resolved microparticle imaging velocimetry.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 11