Sharif Digital Repository

The electric-field induced response of a droplet embedded in a quenched polyelectrolyte gel is calculated theoretically. The response comprises the droplet translation and the electric-field induced flow fields within the droplet. The gel is modeled as a soft, and electrically charged porous solid saturated with a salted Newtonian fluid. The droplet is considered an incompressible Newtonian fluid with no free charge. An analytical solution, using the perturbation methodology and linear superposition, is obtained for the leading-order steady response to a DC electric-field. The fluid within the droplet is driven due to hydrodynamic coupling with the electroosmotic flow. The fluid velocity... 

In this study, we numerically determined the performance of a microscale separator comprising a lateral and a main channel to separate a two-phase flow. It was aimed to conduct continuous phase through the lateral channel and dispersed phase through the main channel. The continuous and dispersed phases were modeled as incompressible Newtonian fluids with the corresponding interface tracked by the phase-field model. The dynamics, including pressure fluctuations in the separator, were further examined. It was mechanistically demonstrated how the geometry of the separator modulates the phase separation. Further examined were the influences of various geometrical parameters on the performance of... 

Mixing in droplets is an essential task in a variety of microfluidic systems. Inspired by electrokinetic mixing, electric field-induced hydrodynamic flow inside a charged droplet embedded in an unbounded polyelectrolyte hydrogel is investigated theoretically. In this study, the polyelectrolyte hydrogel is modeled as a soft, and electrically charged porous solid saturated with a salted Newtonian fluid, and the droplet is considered an incompressible Newtonian fluid. The droplet-hydrogel interface is modeled as a surface, which is located at the plane of shear, with the electrostatic potential ζ. The fluid inside the droplet attains a finite velocity owing to hydrodynamic coupling with the... 

A weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (WCSPH) method is used along with a new no-slip boundary condition to simulate movement of rigid bodies in incompressible Newtonian fluid flows. It is shown that the new boundary treatment method helps to efficiently calculate the hydrodynamic interaction forces acting on moving bodies. To compensate the effect of truncated compact support near solid boundaries, the method needs specific consistent renormalized schemes for the first and second-order spatial derivatives. In order to resolve the problem of spurious pressure oscillations in the WCSPH method, a modification to the continuity equation is used which improves the stability of... 

Characterization of droplet-hydrogel interfaces is of crucial importance to engineer droplet-hydrogel composites for a variety of applications. In order to develop electrokinetic diagnostic tools for probing droplet-hydrogel interfaces, the displacement of a charged droplet embedded in a polyelectrolyte hydrogel exposed to an oscillating electric field is determined theoretically. The polyelectrolyte hydrogel is modeled as an incompressible, charged, porous, and elastic solid saturated with a salted Newtonian fluid. The droplet is considered an incompressible Newtonian fluid with no charges within the droplet. The droplet-hydrogel interface is modeled as a surface with the thickness of zero... 

Determination of effective transport properties of droplet-hydrogel composites is essential for various applications. The transport of ions through a droplet-hydrogel composite subjected to an electric field is theoretically studied as an initial step toward quantifying the effective transport properties of droplet-hydrogel composites. A three-phase electrokinetic model is used to derive the microscale characteristics of the polyelectrolyte hydrogel, and the droplet is considered an incompressible Newtonian fluid. The droplet-hydrogel interface is modeled as a surface, which encloses the interior fluid. The surface has the thickness of zero and the electrostatic potential ζ. Standard...