Numerical modeling of the splitting of magnetic droplets by multiphase lattice Boltzmann equation

Abstract

A multiphase lattice Boltzmann numerical model driven by an isothermal interaction potential is applied for the splitting of magnetic droplets in electrowetting-on-dielectric devices. A hydrophilic magnetic plug is considered inside the liquid droplet and successive uniform force fields are applied in order to split this droplet. The numerical results are compared with experiments on water droplets containing plugs of superparamagnetic beads and good agreement is obtained.

Lattice Boltzmann method for microfluidics: models and applications

“…For example, Sofonea et al (2002;Sofonea and Fruh 2001) had simulated the deformation of magnetic fluid drops (or gas bubbles in magnetic fluids) and the normal field instability of magnetic fluids under the action of an external magnetic field. Similar phenomena has also been investigated recently by Clime et al (2009) had simulated the splitting process of a magnetic droplet with a hydrophilic magnetic plug inside in electrowettingon-dielectric devices, and the simulation results had been compared with experimental observations with excellent agreement. On the hand, the dynamics of paramagnetic particles under rotating magnetic fields in fluid has also been studied (Calhoun et al 2006;Krishnamurthy et al 2008) for its potential application in microfluidic mixing.…”

On the formulations of interfacial force in the phase-field-based lattice Boltzmann method

“…Multiphase flows are ubiquitous in both natural processes and industrial applications, such as droplet dynamics [1], lab-on-chip devices [2], surfactant behavior [3], underground water flows [4] and enhanced oil recovery [5]. A number of numerical methods have been developed for simulating such flows, which can be divided into two categories, i.e, interface tracking approach and interface capturing approach.…”