Three-dimensional simulations of viscous folding in diverging microchannels

Abstract

Three-dimensional simulations on the viscous folding in diverging microchannels reported by Cubaud and Mason (Phys Rev Lett 96(11): 114,501, 2006a) are performed using the parallel code BLUE for multiphase flows (Shin et al. in A solver for massively parallel direct numerical simulation of three-dimensional multiphase flows. arXiv:1410.8568). The more viscous liquid L-1 is injected into the channel from the center inlet, and the less viscous liquid L-2 from two side inlets. Liquid L-1 takes the form of a thin filament due to hydrodynamic focusing in the long channel that leads to the diverging region. The thread then becomes unstable to a folding instability, due to the longitudinal compressive stress applied to it by the diverging flow of liquid L-2. Given the long computation time, we were limited to a parameter study comprising five simulations in which the flow rate ratio, the viscosity ratio, the Reynolds number, and the shape of the channel were varied relative to a reference model. In our simulations, the cross section of the thread produced by focusing is elliptical rather than circular. The initial folding axis can be either parallel or perpendicular to the narrow dimension of the chamber. In the former case, the folding slowly transforms via twisting to perpendicular folding, or it may remain parallel. The direction of folding onset is determined by the velocity profile and the elliptical shape of the thread cross section in the channel that feeds the diverging part of the cell. Due to the high viscosity contrast and very low Reynolds numbers, direct numerical simulations of this two-phase flow are very challenging and to our knowledge these are the first three-dimensional direct parallel numerical simulations of viscous threads in microchannels. Our simulations provide good qualitative comparison of the early time onset of the folding instability, however, since the computational time for these simulations is quite long, especially for such viscous threads, long-time comparisons with experiments for quantities such as folding amplitude and frequency are limited.