Related papers: Elastocapillary sequential fluid capture in hummin…
Acoustic traps are used to capture and handle suspended microparticles and cells in microfluidic applications. A particular simple and much-used acoustic trap consists of a commercially available, millimeter-sized, liquid-filled glass…
Understanding of sedimentation dynamics of particles in bounded fluids is of crucial importance for a wide variety of processes. While there is profound knowledge base regarding the sedimentation of rigid solid particles, the fundamental…
Ultrasound-vaporizable microdroplets can be exploited for targeted drug delivery. However, it requires customized microfluidic techniques able to produce monodisperse, capillary-sized and biocompatible multiple emulsions. Recent development…
This paper presents a passive control method for multiple degrees of freedom in a soft pneumatic robot through the combination of flow resistor tubes with series inflatable actuators. We designed and developed these 3D printed resistors…
Multi-component fluid flow simulations in multi-scale porous structures often involve regions that are under-resolved at practical computational resolutions. Accurately capturing the contributions from these unresolved regions is critical.…
We develop a nonlinear model for electroosmotic transport in a constricted microchannel with a compliant lower wall, with applications to soft microfluidics, bio-inspired sensing, and energy harvesting. The formulation couples…
Softer means stickier for solid adhesives, because material compliance facilitates close contact between non-conformal surfaces. Recent discoveries have revealed that soft materials can exhibit a rich array of new physics arising from…
Flow sensing is fundamental to both biological survival and technological innovation. Inspired by biological mechanoreceptors, artificial flow sensors detect subtle fluid motion using slender, viscous-driven structures. Among these,…
Rapid and sustained condensate droplet departure from a surface is key towards achieving high heat transfer rates in condensation, a physical process critical to a broad range of industrial and societal applications. Despite progress in…
We demonstrate the passive control of viscous flow in a channel by using an elastic arch embedded in the flow. Depending on the fluid flux, the arch may `snap' between two states --- constricting and unconstricting --- that differ in…
A computational framework is developed to address capillary self-focusing in Step Emulsification. The microfluidic system consists of a single shallow and wide microchannel that merges into a deep reservoir. A continuum approach coupled…
We study experimentally the motion of non-deformable microbeads in a linear shear flow close to a wall bearing a thin and soft polymer layer. Combining microfluidics and 3D optical tracking, we demonstrate that the steady-state bead/surface…
Step-emulsification is a microfluidic technique for droplet generation which relies on the abrupt decrease of confinement of a liquid filament surrounded by a continuous phase. A striking feature of this geometry is the transition between…
Modelling of colloidal and nano-suspension transport in porous media has garnered significant attention due to the prevalence of these processes in many engineering applications. A number of experimental studies have reported retention…
This work investigates the capillary rise dynamics of highly wetting liquids in a divergent U-tube in the microgravity conditions provided by 78th European Space Agency (ESA) parabolic flight. This configuration produces a capillary-driven…
In this paper we present a comprehensive study of the step-emulsification process for high-throughput production of (sub-)$\mu$m-size monodisperse droplets. The microfluidic device combines a Hele-Shaw nanofluidic cell with a step-like…
Elastic capsules, prepared from droplets or bubbles attached to a capillary (as in a pendant drop tensiometer), can be deflated by suction through the capillary. We study this deflation and show that a combined analysis of the shape and…
Objective: We aim to improve operational robustness of liquid scanning probes. Two main failure modes to be addressed are an obstruction of the flow path of the processing liquid and a deviation from the desired gap distance between probe…
Guided by extensive numerical simulations, we propose a microfluidic device that can sort elastic capsules by their deformability. The device consists of a duct embedded with a semi-cylindrical obstacle, and a diffuser which further…
We present comprehensive numerical studies of the motion of a buoyant or a nearly neutrally buoyant nano-sized ellipsoidal particle in a fluid filled cylindrical tube without or with the presence of imposed pressure gradient (weak…