A Novel Method for Decreasing Breakup Time of Droplet in Symmetric T-junction Microchannel

Droplet motion in microchannels is observed in versatile industrial and scientific applications, such as biological engineering, drug delivery, and encapsulation. In current investigation, breakup of mother droplet in a T-junction microchannel is simulated using the Gerris open-source software. To validate current simulation, results are appraised by the published literatures. The comparison depicts that the current results are in good agreement with previous studies. The effect of the presence of a semi-circular obstacle on the flow pattern and the breakup time of mother droplet is investigated for different Capillary numbers (0.006 Ca 0.019) and the non-dimensional initial length of droplet (L*=2, 3, and 4). The results reveal that by simple modifications on the symmetry T-junction, the mother droplet splits faster in the comparison of the ordinary symmetry T-junction geometry under the same conditions. For instance, the breakup time of mother droplet at Ca=0.01 for L*=2, 3, and 4 approximately decreases 75%, 45%, and 32% in the presence of obstacle, respectively. Furthermore, the breakup time of the drop decreases by increasing the Capillary number.