Non-Newtonian Droplet Formation in Two-phase Flows in a Co-flowing Microchannel

The intermolecular potential model of the lattice Boltzmann method is used to simulate the droplet formation and breakup process of mixing of immiscible fluids. The aim of this research is to investigate non-Newtonian droplet formation in Newtonian continuous phase in a co-flowing micro-channel. The dimensionless numbers such as Capillary and velocity ratio are the most important dimensionless numbers in determination of fluid flow characteristics in the micro-channel. The influences of capillary number, nonNewtonian index and velocity ratio are studied on the droplet formation. The final droplet size, droplet generation frequency and detachment point of the droplet are completely analyzed. The results reveal that with increasing the non-Newtonian index, the required time for detachment of the droplet and the formation length is decreased. Increasing the Capillary number leads to a reduction in the detachment length. The size of droplet is also decreased due to the reducing velocity ratio and Capillary number. Moreover, the effect of non-Newtonian index on the distance between the droplets is checked.