This presentation will focus on understanding the behavior of droplet emulsions in microfluidic channels and the various passive control elements that can manipulate droplet generation, transport, phase transformation, and self assembly processes. Recently several research groups have been exploring two phase flow in microfluidic flow channels. When two immiscible fluids are flowing side by side in microchannels, the laminar flow nature of the low Reynolds number regime produce viscous shear stress at the interface between the fluids. If the shear stress is larger than the interfacial tension forces, then droplets that are uniform in size are generated. As these droplets continue to travel down the flow channel in the carrier fluid (the continuous phase), the geometry of the downstream flow channels, the addition of surfactants, and the exposure to light of photosensitive fluids can one by one add complexity to the nature of flow. The understanding of this nature would allow one to control droplet formation and its subsequent transformation for applications such as biosensors, materials synthesis, biodiagnostics, and production of biotherapeutics.
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