Journal article
A numerical study of two-phase Stokes flow in an axisymmetric flow-focusing device
We present a numerical investigation of the time-dependent dynamics of the creation of gas bubbles in an axisymmetric flow-focusing device. The liquid motion is treated as a Stokes flow, and using a generic framework we implement a second-order time-integration scheme and a free-surface model in MATLAB, which interfaces with the finite-element software FEMLAB.
We derive scaling laws for the volume of a created bubble and for the gas flow rate, and confirm them numerically. Our results are consistent with existing experimental results by Garstecki et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 164501 (2005)], and predict a scaling yet to be observed: the bubble volume scales with the outlet channel radius to the power of 4 and the surface tension.
Our axisymmetric simulations further show that the collapse of the gas thread before bubble snap-off is different from the recent experimental results. We suggest that this difference is caused by differences in geometry between experiments and the simulations. ©2006 American Institute of Physics
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | American Institute of Physics |
Year: | 2006 |
Pages: | 077103 |
ISSN: | 10897666 and 10706631 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1063/1.2214461 |
ORCIDs: | Bruus, Henrik |