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We demonstrate a general concept of flow manipulation in microfluidic environments, based on controlling the shape and position of flow domains in order to force switching and sorting of microparticles without moving parts or changes in design geometry. Using microbubble acoustic streaming, we show that regulation of the relative strength of streaming and a superimposed Poiseuille flow allows for size-selective trapping and releasing of particles, with particle size sensitivity much greater than what is imposed by the length scales of microfabrication. A simple criterion allows for quantitative tuning of microfluidic devices for switching and sorting of particles of desired size.

Oscillating microbubbles of radius 20-100 lm driven by ultrasound initiate a steady streaming flow around the bubbles. In such flows, microparticles of even smaller sizes (radius 1-5 lm) exhibit size-dependent behaviors: particles of different sizes follow different characteristic trajectories despite density-matching. Adjusting the relative strengths of the streaming flow and a superimposed Poiseuille flow allows for a simple tuning of particle behavior, separating the trajectories of particles with a size resolution on the order of 1 lm. Selective trapping, accumulation, and release of particles can be achieved. We show here how to design bubble microfluidic devices that use these concepts to filter, enrich, and preconcentrate particles of selected sizes, either by concentrating them in discrete clusters (localized both stream-and spanwise) or by forcing them into narrow, continuous trajectory bundles of strong spanwise localization.

We present the results of an experimental and linear stability study of the influence of viscosity on the frozen wave (FW) instability, which arises when a vessel containing stably stratified layers of immiscible liquids is oscillated horizontally. Our linear stability model consists of two superposed fluid layers of arbitrary viscosities and infinite lateral extent, subject to horizontal oscillation. The effect of the endwalls of the experimental vessel is simulated by enforcing the conservation of horizontal volume flux, so that the base flow consists of counterflowing layers.We perform experiments with four pairs of fluids, keeping the viscosity of the lower layer (ν1) constant, and increasing the viscosity of the upper layer (ν2), so that 1.02 × 102 ≤ N1 = ν2/ν1 ≤ 1.21 × 104. We find excellent quantitative agreement between theory and experiment despite the simple model geometry, for both the critical onset parameter and wavenumber of the FW. We show that the model of lyubimov:1987 (Fluid Dyn. vol. 86, 1987, p. 849), which is valid in the limit of inviscid fluids, consistently underestimates the instability threshold for fluids of equal viscosity, but generally overestimates the threshold for fluids of unequal viscosity. We extend the experimental parameter range numerically to viscosity contrasts 1 ≤ N1 ≤ 6 × 104 and identify four regions of N1 where qualitatively different dynamics occur, which are reflected in the non-monotonic dependence of the most unstable wavenumber and the critical amplitude on N1. In particular, we find that increasing the viscosity contrast between the layers leads to destabilization over a wide range of N1, 10 ≤ N1 ≤ 8 × 103. The intricate dependence of the instability on viscosity contrast is due to considerable changes in the time-averaged perturbation vorticity distribution near the interface.

We study steep capillary-gravity waves that form at the interface between two stably stratified layers of immiscible liquids in a horizontally oscillating vessel. The oscillatory nature of the external forcing prevents the waves from overturning, and thus enables the development of steep waves at large forcing. They arise through a supercritical pitchfork bifurcation, characterized by the square root dependence of the height of the wave on the excess vibrational Froude number (W , square root of the ratio of vibrational to gravitational forces). At a critical value W c , a transition to a linear variation in W is observed. It is accompanied by sharp qualitative changes in the harmonic content of the wave shape, so that trochoidal waves characterize the weakly nonlinear regime, but 'finger'-like waves form for W > W c . In this strongly nonlinear regime, the wavelength is a function of the product of amplitude and frequency of forcing, whereas for W < W c , the wavelength exhibits an explicit dependence on the frequency of forcing that is due to the effect of viscosity. Most significantly, the radius of curvature of the wave crests decreases monotonically with W to reach the capillary length for W = W c , i.e. the lengthscale for which surface tension forces balance gravitational forces. For W < W c , gravitational restoring forces dominate, but for W > W c , the wave development is increasingly defined by localized surface tension effects.