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Simulation of Rapid Formation of Multicellular Spheroids in Double-emulsion Droplets with Controllable Microenvironment

Talakoob Shirazi, Shahriar | 2016

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: English
  3. Document No: 48919 (58)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology, International Campus, Kish Island
  5. Department: Science and Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Moosavi, Ali; Sadrhosseini, Hani
  7. Abstract:
  8. This study is aimed at simulation of double emulsion formation in a microfluidic double flow focusing device which consists of two cross-junctions connected serially. The water in oil (w/o) emulsions are produced in the first junction. In the second junction, water in oil emulsions are encapsulated by an outer aqueous phase to generate water in oil in water (w/o/w) double emulsions. Water in oil emulsions are formed in hydrophobic channels and water in oil in water double emulsions are formed in hydrophilic channels. A three phase numerical model, based on the VOF-CSF method, is developed for simulating the process of double emulsion formation. An adaptive mesh refinement technique is utilized in order to reduce the computational cost. Synchronization of droplet formation in each junction was achieved by altering the flow rate ratio in each junction while keeping fluid properties constant, such that the device was capable of reproducing double emulsions. It was found that droplet formation in both junctions of the device occurs in squeezing regime. The effects of fluid properties and also the flow rate ratio of the first junction, on the inner droplet size were explored. The inner droplet size increased with the surface tension between the inner and middle phases. The core size increased slightly with the viscosity of the dispersed phase in the first junction. Increasing the viscosity of the continuous phase in the first junction reduced the core size significantly. Changing the density values of the inner and middle phases had no influence on the inner droplet size
  9. Keywords:
  10. Multiphase Flow ; Modified Volume of Fluid (VOF) ; Coupled Level Set Volume of Fluid (CLSVOF) ; Double Emulsion Droplet ; Flow Focusing Device

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