On-Chip Droplet Splitting with High Volume Ratios Using a 3D Conical Microstructure-Based Microfluidic Device.

This work reports a simple microfluidic method for splitting a mother droplet into two daughter droplets with high and precise volume ratios. To achieve this, a droplet-splitting microfluidic device embedded with a three-dimensional (3D) conical microstructure is fabricated, in which the high splitting ratios of monodisperse mother droplets are achieved. The volume ratio of the split daughter droplets can reach up to 265.

On-Demand Transport Bubbles Adhering to Noncontiguous Patterned Superhydrophobic Surfaces Using a Superhydrophobic Tweezer.

Bubble transportation and related flotation are ubiquitous phenomena in nature and industry. Various surfaces with distinct morphologies and specific wettability properties have been engineered by organisms in nature and by humans to facilitate the targeted movement of bubbles. However, existing methods predominantly rely on continuous surfaces, limiting the ability of bubbles to deviate from their path before reaching their intended destination.

High-Speed Generation of Microbubbles with Constant Cumulative Production in a Glass Capillary Microfluidic Bubble Generator.

This work reports a simple bubble generator for the high-speed generation of microbubbles with constant cumulative production. To achieve this, a gas-liquid co-flowing microfluidic device with a tiny capillary orifice as small as 5 μm is fabricated to produce monodisperse microbubbles. The diameter of the microbubbles can be adjusted precisely by tuning the input gas pressure and flow rate of the continuous liquid phase.

A self-cleaning micro-fluidic chip biospired by the filtering system of manta rays.

Size-based particle filtration has become indispensable in numerous biomedical and environmental applications. In this study, bioinspired by the filter-feeding mechanism (lobe filtration) of manta rays, we designed a U-shaped biomimetic gill rake filter that combined lobe filtration and Dean flow to filter monodisperse suspensions, bi-disperse suspensions and yeast cells. Compared with other equipment using the inertial focusing technology, our equipment can perform high-throughput (up to 8 mL min) and high-efficiency filtration of particles (maximum filtration efficiencies of 96.

One-Step Microfluidic Fabrication of Bioinspired Microfibers with a Spindle-Knot Structure for Fog Harvest.

Many biomimetic microfibers have been designed from spider silk to collect water efficiently from humid air as a result of its periodic spindle-knot structure, which enhances the direct movement and convergence of captured fog droplets. Here, a hydrodynamic flow-focusing microfluidic device with a theta-shaped tube is designed for the one-step fabrication of bioinspired microfibers with a spindle-knot structure for fog harvest. The morphology of the structured microfibers, including height, width, and spacing of spindle knots, can be adjusted readily by regulating the flow rate of specific phases.

Design and calibration of the 6-DOF motion tracking system integrated on the Stewart parallel manipulator.

Accurate pose measurement is crucial for parallel manipulators (PM). This study designs a novel integrated 6-DOF motion tracking system to achieve precise online pose measurement. However, the presence of geometric errors introduces imperfections in the accuracy of the measured pose.

Design of a multilayer lung chip with multigenerational alveolar ducts to investigate the inhaled particle deposition.

We present the development and application of a multilayer microfluidic lung chip designed to accurately replicate the human respiratory bronchi, providing an innovative platform for controlled particle deposition in the lung. By employing a quantitative control method of fluid velocity through the deformation of an elastic PDMS membrane, this platform mimics the passive breathing process in humans and allows for precise simulation of the respiration cycle. We utilized time-lapse photography of fluorescent particles in a water/glycerol solution to qualitatively observe fluid morphology in the channel, while a chip-aerosol exposure device combined with microscopy imaging was employed to visualise aerosol deposition.

An Armour Structure to Suppress the Brittle Failure of Ceramic Coatings.

The brittle failure of ceramic coatings limits their application in many fields. To address this issue, a novel armoured ceramic coating was developed to suppress brittle failure. First, an interconnected frame microstructure was micromachined onto the surface of a mild steel substrate using a nanosecond laser.

Spontaneous Rising of a Whirling-Swimmer Driven by a Bubble.

The wind-dispersed seeds can rotate and fall like small vehicles with the help of the wind to obtain a longer propagation distance. Inspired by this, we propose a novel bubble-driven three-bladed whirling-swimmer (WS) to travel in the fluid as a vehicle. Four types of WSs with blade folding angles (φ) ranging from 10 to 60° were designed, and their swimming performance was evaluated.

Settling velocity variation induced by a sphere moving across a two-layer stratified fluid with different rheological characteristics.

Particle settling in stratified fluids is widespread in chemical and pharmaceutical processes, and how to effectively regulate the particle velocity is the key to optimizing the above process technology. In this study, the settling of individual particle in two stratified fluids, water-oil and water-PAAm was studied using the high-speed shadow imaging method. In the Newtonian stratified fluid of water-oil, the particle penetrates the liquid-liquid interface and forms unsteady entrained drops of different shapes, and the settling velocity becomes smaller.

Dynamic Characterization of Thermocouples under Double-Pulse Laser-Induced Thermal Excitation.

This study investigated the dynamic characteristics of thermocouples by using double-pulse laser excitation for dynamic temperature calibration under extreme conditions. An experimental device was constructed for double-pulse laser calibration; the device uses a digital pulse delay trigger to precisely control the double-pulse laser to achieve sub-microsecond dual temperature excitation with adjustable time intervals. The time constants of thermocouples under single-pulse laser excitation and double-pulse laser excitation were evaluated.

Encapsulation of Monodisperse Microdroplets in Nanofibers through a Microfluidic-Electrospinning Hybrid Method.

Fibers with droplets encapsulated in them could build bridges between a 0D dispersed structure and a 1D continuous wire and thus provide optimal solutions requiring high surface-to-volume ratio and strong mechanical properties. However, current methods are mostly focusing on the architectures with the size of droplets smaller than that of fibers; the relatively thick barrier of fibers usually limits the rate of diffusion from inner droplets to the outer environment. Here, we report a hybrid method combining microfluidics and electrospinning to fabricate nanofibers with microdroplets encapsulated in them.

Near-Wall Settling Behavior of a Particle in Stratified Fluids.

The phenomenon of near-wall particle settling in a stratified fluid is an emerging topic in the field of multiphase flow, and it is also widely found in nature and engineering applications. In stratified fluids, particle settling characteristics are affected by the physical and chemical properties of the upper and lower fluids, the particle size, the particle density, and the initial sedimentation conditions. In this study, the main objective is to determine the effect of liquid viscosity and particle density on the detaching process, and the trajectory and velocity of near-wall settling particles in stratified fluids.

CFD-DEM Coupling Model for Deposition Process Analysis of Ultrafine Particles in a Micro Impinging Flow Field.

Gas with ultrafine particle impaction on a solid surface is a unique case of curvilinear motion that can be widely used for the devices of surface coatings or instruments for particle size measurement. In this work, the Eulerian-Lagrangian method was applied to calculate the motion of microparticles in a micro impinging flow field with consideration of the interactions between particle to particle, particle to wall, and particle to fluid. The coupling computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with the discrete element method (DEM) was employed to investigate the different deposition patterns of microparticles.

Numerical Study of Nanoparticle Deposition in a Gaseous Microchannel under the Influence of Various Forces.

Nanoparticle deposition in microchannel devices inducing contaminant clogging is a serious barrier to the application of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). For micro-scale gas flow fields with a high Knudsen number () in the microchannel, gas rarefaction and velocity slip cannot be ignored. Furthermore, the mechanism of nanoparticle transport and deposition in the microchannel is extremely complex.

A Numerical Investigation on the Collision Behavior of Unequal-Sized Micro-Nano Droplets.

Micro-nano droplet collisions are fundamental phenomena in the applications of nanocoating, nano spray, and microfluidics. Detailed investigations of the process of the droplet collisions under higher Weber are still lacking when compared with previous research studies under a low Weber number below 120. Collision dynamics of unequal-sized micro-nano droplets are simulated by a coupled level-set and volume of fluid (CLSVOF) method with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR).

Droplet Generation in a Flow-Focusing Microfluidic Device with External Mechanical Vibration.

The demand for highly controllable droplet generation methods is very urgent in the medical, materials, and food industries. The droplet generation in a flow-focusing microfluidic device with external mechanical vibration, as a controllable droplet generation method, is experimentally studied. The effects of vibration frequency and acceleration amplitude on the droplet generation are characterized.

Virtual-Wall Model for Molecular Dynamics Simulation.

A large number of molecules are usually required to model atomic walls in molecular dynamics simulations. A virtual-wall model is proposed in this study to describe fluid-wall molecular interactions, for reducing the computational time. The infinite repetition of unit cell structures within the atomic wall causes the periodicity of the force acting on a fluid molecule from the wall molecules.