Flow Visualization of the Flow inside the Droplet Passing through a Straight and a Diverging Channel

직선채널과 확대채널에서의 액적 내부 유동 가시화

Flow visualization of a droplet passing through a straight channel and a diverging channel has been carried out using micro-PIV. Diverging channel is frequently used in lab-on-a-chip and microfluidic devices, where flow pattern inside the droplet passing is quite different from that through a straight channel. In the present study, we visualized the droplet flow in three different regions. The first region is where the droplet has a wide contact area with the channel wall, the second region is characterized with a narrow contact area and the third region is where droplet is detached from the channel wall. Visualization results show that the internal flow inside the droplet passing through the straight channel moves in the opposite direction to the droplet velocity in the near wall exhibiting complex flow patterns. But in the diverging channel the internal flow inside the droplet moves in the same direction as the droplet velocity due to the shear induced by oil phase flow exhibiting rather simple flow pattern.