Numerical prototyping of co-axial droplet generators

DAVID HARISPE; JORGE CARAM; URTEAGA, RAÚL; PABLO KLER

Buenos Aires

Congreso; III Brazil?Argentine Microfluidics Congress / VI Congreso Argentino de Microfluídica; 2022

Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica (CNEA)

High performance numerical simulations allows the development of numerical prototypes that facilitate the process of designing and optimizing devicesfor microdroplet generation through different virtual experiments. The formation of microdroplets from one fluid (dispersed phase) into another (continuousphase) can occur in a controlled manner in a discontinuous flow (“dripping”),or a continuous jet (“jetting”) which eventually breaks into droplets far downstream in an uncontrolled manner. Although experimental systems that areable to produce droplets of up to three phases have been reported, the transition from dripping to jetting regime is not yet fully understood even for simpletwo-phase (co-flow) systems. Moreover, the operating conditions needed formicrodroplets to be experimentally produced in two-phase systems are still under study. The validation with experimental coaxial generators in the drippingregime, will allows the evolution of the numerical prototype to a more complexversion involving three phases, planar chips, and the transport of reactive substances for synthesis simulation. For the computational model, Basilisk, anOpen Source software for solving fluid flow equations based on the volume-offluid method, is used. The results obtained in the computational study of acoaxial system in the dripping regime, for a two-phase model are presented andcompared with experiments present in the literature.