Open AccessModeling of low-capillary number segmented flows in microchannels using OpenFOAM
Author(s) -
Duong A. Hoang,
Volkert van Steijn,
Luís M. Portela,
Michiel T. Kreutzer,
Chris R. Kleijn
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
aip conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Conference proceedings
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.177
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1551-7616
pISSN - 0094-243X
DOI - 10.1063/1.4756069
Subject(s) - volume of fluid method , microfluidics , capillary action , mechanics , microchannel , flow (mathematics) , computational fluid dynamics , spurious relationship , benchmark (surveying) , computer science , fluid dynamics , multiphase flow , grid , materials science , physics , nanotechnology , mathematics , thermodynamics , geometry , geodesy , machine learning , geography
Modeling of low-Capillary number segmented flows in microchannels is important for the design of microfluidic devices. We present numerical validations of microfluidic flow simulations using the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method as implemented in OpenFOAM. Two benchmark cases were investigated to ensure the reliability of OpenFOAM in modeling complex physical phenomena in microfluidics, viz. 1) the steady motion of bubbles in capillaries, and 2) the formation of bubbles in T-junctions. We found that it is crucial to reduce spurious currents and to apply local grid refinement to capture the relevant flow physics. With these, we obtain good agreement between our numerical simulations and previously published theoretical and experimental data
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