Sharif Digital Repository

Co-culture of different cells is necessary for cancer spheroid formation in preclinical drug tests. It is possible to produce thousands of micro-droplets containing different cells, i.e. microcapsules, in a short time, using droplet microfluidics. However the homogeneity of the cell numbers in the droplets has remained as an unsolved problem.Despite the large amount of experimental efforts to reduce the number of undesirable microcapsules, no one tried to utilize the ease of computer aided simulation for investigating different parameters. In this study, we develop a novel method for capturing cell encapsulation using CFD simulations. The effect of the cell suspension inhomogeneity and... 

In this research, numerical simulation of the impact of a drop on a flat surface with oblique velocity has been performed, using two-phase model of Lattice Boltzmann Method (conservative phase-field). During impact, it is important to investigate two-dimensional drop dynamics and to evaluate the effectiveness of the numerical method used. The model used here restores conservative phase field and preserves mass both locally and globally. In addition, to calculate the slope of the phase field, it calls the center points without engaging finite difference calculations. This makes it efficient for running parallel computations. A fixed dry and hard surface is considered and the drop impacts it... 

In general, the output power of the gas turbines decreases as the ambient temperature increases. One of the ways to deal with such a performance loss is to use a wet compression system, which reduces the air temperature rise throughout the compressor. In this system, the water droplets are injected into the compressor inlet and evaporated throughout the stages. As a result, the work of the compressor decreases, and the power and efficiency of the whole engine increase. Most of the researchers in this field have tried to develop mathematical models to investigate the effects of this system on compressor and gas turbine performance in steady-state conditions. However, it is necessary to... 

Micropumps are regarded as one of the devices used in microsystems, which are responsible for pumping working fluid. The Mercury Magneto Reciprocating (MMR) micropump, which has been introduced for less than a decade, is an innovative kind of micropumps which the pumping agent includes three liquid metal droplets (LMD) placed inside lateral chambers and reciprocated by the electromagnetic force inside the chambers. The working fluid located inside the main channel is pumped through due to the movement of these three LMDs. The equations governing this micropump are complex and their numerical solution is a time-consuming process, due to electromagnetic, hydrodynamic, and unsteady effects. The... 

Wide and varied aspects of droplet motion due to its increasing application in various fields has attracted much attention. Analysis of mass transfer from the liquid drop into the other fluid, such as complex and intriguing problems in fluid mechanics, which is very important. Many experimental and numerical studies have been carried out in this case that the evelopment of laboratory equipment and software, are rapidly growing.
In this study, given the importance of this issue, experimental study on mass transfer in fluid systems solution droplet liquid - liquid extraction, have been considered. Different methods have been discussed to date. In the present study, using image processing... 

Injecting several droplets with a known size distribution function in the hot gas environment makes droplets smaller because of evaporation or reaction. Droplets lifetime specification is important in vapor-liquid interactive processes such as chemical or process industries. In previous works, different approximate semi-empirical methods are developed to specify droplets lifetime without considering their size distribution. In this work, governing equations is studiedconsidering a size distribution function for droplets. There is not any analytical method for solving this set of equations, so numerical methods using CFD packages such as Fluent, are applicable in these cases. In this study,... 

Encompassing an interaction between the phase change material (PCM) and the droplets of a heat transfer fluid, the direct contact (DC) method provides a state-of-the-art solution for the meager melting and solidification rates of PCMs. In the DC procedure, when impinging on the molten PCM pool, droplets evaporate, solidifying the portion of the PCM. For the first time, the impact of single and simultaneous double ethanol droplets, having an average diameter of 2.68 mm, on the molten paraffin wax has been scrutinized exhaustively. Experiments have been carried out through high-speed imaging for various Weber numbers ranging from 179 to 464, pool temperatures from 70 to 95°C, and horizontal... 

Surfactants are materials that reduces surface tension, and this property has provided a wide range of applications for them. Most of the surfactants reduce surface tensions at the interface of two fluids. The pharmaceutical and food industries, detergents, cosmetics, agricultural pesticides, dye production and oil extraction are among these applications.In this study, the formation of droplets in the presence of three types of surfactants SDS, CTAB and Tween 20 has been investigated. To evaluate the droplet behavior in the presence of specific surfactants, various parameters such as formation time of the droplet, the diameter and length of the droplet formed, the diameter and length of the... 

Regarding to the effect of nanoparticles on mass transfer and hydrodynamics characteristics, limited number of studiesavailableinthe literature.In this work, mass transfer performanceand hydrodynamic characteristics nanofluidshavebeeninvestigated in the liquid−liquid extraction process. The chemical system of toluene-acetic acid-water was used, and two Extraction columnswith diameter of 10cm and height of 55cm and 6 cm were designed. The drops were organic nanofluids containing silica nano-particles and carbon nano-tubes.Synthesized silica nanoparticles by sol-gel methods, were modified with Triethoxyoctylsilane and Polydimethylsiloxane as well as Carbon nano-tubes were modified with dodecyl... 

Liquid-Liquid coalescers are devices used for increasing the droplet size of the dispersed phase in continuous phase flow such as water droplets in oil flow. The scope of this work is a literature study on the coalescence phenomenon and CFD modeling in general. A mathematical model for simulating coalescence of water droplets in continuous oil flow by the use of different commercial coalescers. The basis for the model are plate-type coalescer and swirl-based coalescer. So, the simulations are done by Eulerian-Lagrangian method. Different aspects of the performance of the coalescers are studied on the rate of coalescence such as impact of changing droplet’s inlet diameters, impact of the... 

The electric field induced response of a charged droplet in an uncharged gel is calculated theoretically. For modeling, the gel is considered as a soft porous solid that is saturated with a Newtonian electrolyte and modeled as a continuum that contains 3 phases: a porous, soft and compressible solid, an incompressible Newtonian fluid and the ions inside fluid. Droplet is modeled as a charged incompressible Newtonian fluid immiscible with the gel. The droplet-gel interface is considered as a surface with electrostatic potential ζ . After obtaining governing equations, they solved by using perturbation methodology and linear superposition. Boundary conditions, especially at the droplet-gel... 

Polymeric microspheres which can load biomolecules, proteins and growth factors play an important role in tissue engineering and drug delivery systems. The size of the microspheres and encapsulation efficiency exert a considerable impact on the usability of them. In this study double emulsion method is used for fabrication of microspheres. Effect of different parameters namely the speed of homogenization, time of homogenization, the amount of polymer in oil phase, the surfactant concentration in different phases on the size and surface morphology of the microspheres are investigated. Moreover, a release test for BSA loaded microspheres is conducted. Results indicate that by increasing the... 

Droplet microfluidic platform generates monodisperse droplets in a desired size through immiscible multiphase flows inside microchannels. Droplets are individual reactor and can be used for bio(chemical) analyses. Also, for materials fabrication, droplet microfluidics offers a versatile platform for generation of nano- or micro-sized particles and microcapsules that are widely used in drug delivery. In addition to the monodispersity, high-throughput generation is also necessary in many applications. Therefore, droplets must be formed in stable regimes (dripping and squeezing) in the highest possible frequency. In this study, the flow-focusing geometry, which is the most common geometry in... 

Formation and detachment of drops are of fundamental importance in studying two-phase flows, such as ink jet printing, emulsion, and spray. Drops are formed under the effects of surface tension forces. After formation, forces like gravity detach the drop from the rest of the fluid. The flow rate is varied from dripping to jetting regime. In this project, formation and detachment of drops were simulated, using LBM with phase field model, which can simulate flows with high-density ratios and is a robust method for applying wetting condition on the walls. Results were validated using single-phase and two-phase flows. After code validation, the oscillations caused by formation and detachment of... 

In this research, two important mechanisms were discussed including droplet generation and jumping mechanisms using electro wetting-on-dielectric. For these purposes, the finite element method (FEM) was used to solve the unsteady Naiver-Stokes equation. In addition, the level set method was applied to capture the interface between two phases. In the current study, first, droplet generation in a T-junction fluidic channel device was studied through using electro wetting actuation. The efficacy of electro wetting on the droplet generation frequency as well as droplet diameter is visible in a T-junction fluidic channel since after applying voltages, specified with non-dimensional electro... 

The electrohydrodynamic (EHD) 3D printing technology is an Additive Manufacturing (AM) method that can be used in the manufacture of submicron-size structures. Due to the multiphysics dynamics and the multiphase nature of the microdroplet formation in the EHD printers, modeling of this phenomenon is complicated. In this thesis, the formation of a droplet in an EHD printer—under a pulsed electrical field—is simulated using a new numerical model which couples the fluid flow, the electric field distribution and the movement of the electric charges under dynamic and transient conditions. The level-set method is applied to the entire multiphysics domain in order to study the formation of the... 

Emulsions are the intermittent dispersion of liquid droplets that have many applications such as polymerization, dyeing, cosmetics, food industry, etc. Droplets can be created in a variety of ways, but the most important point in emulsification and the greatest efficiency of its applications is when the formed droplets are uniform. In the emulsification process, there is a key parameter called interfacial tension, which affects the behavior of the formed droplets, such as their stability and morphology, and its precise measurement is very effective in the quality control of the mentioned applications. Be. In this research, droplet formation in microfluidic systems due to uniform droplet... 

The purpose of this research is the synthesis of nanoparticles using micro fluid glass.The microfluidic glassy building is studied. Glass microfluidic microchannels making hydrophobic the continuing experiments carried out so that the water droplets in the organic phase and at the end of nanoparticles should be synthesized. Tests hydrophobic microchannels and water droplets in the organic phase was formed. In order to ensure an escape water contact angle and FTIR micro-channel test is taken and to avoid the droplets merged with each of surfactant SDS was used. In the end, DLS and FESEM nanoparticles synthesized using the tests have been evaluated and the concentrations of reactants and flow... 

Improving the discharge process of phase-change materials (PCMs) is of great importance. In this study, the process of acetone drop impact on molten paraffin, as a direct-contact solidification method, is experimentally investigated. Four Weber numbers (corresponding to heights of 10, 20, 30, and 40 cm) for the acetone drop and six surface temperatures (66, 68, 70, 75, 80, and 90 °C) for the molten paraffin are considered. As the acetone drop impacts the molten paraffin, the drop absorbs heat from the melting paraffin and boils, solidifying a portion of the molten paraffin. Two important parameters that govern the acetone drop dynamics and the solidification of the molten paraffin are the... 

A new microfluidic device is introduced for sorting the particles based on the hydrodynamic resistance induced in a microchannel which is not needed for additional detection or sorting modules. Hydrodynamic resistance affects physical properties, such as size and deformability of the particle. This device could apply application in cell sorting for remedies, diagnostics, and industrial applications. The device design is performed using an equivalent resistance model, and also numerical simulations are performed. For validation of the results, they are compared with experimental results. Moreover, we will discuss threshold particle size and will introduce a way to approximate it to ...