The study of monodisperse water-in-oil macroemulsion dynamics in a microfluidic chip

Abstract

Emulsion dynamics is little-studied, but important subject for biological, medical and physical applications. In this work microfluidic droplet generator was used to experimentally study two-dimensional flow of monodispersed macroemulsion with 25 - 50 μm droplet size. Quantity of droplets, their trajectories and velocity profiles were studied. Obtained results showed, that velocity profile of droplets flow does not coincide with the Poiseuille profile of laminar oil flow in the channel. Droplet velocity decrease with the increasing of droplets concentration, which can be explained by the hydrodynamic interactions between droplets. The law of motion can be well described by the Greenberg's traffic flow model.