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Fluid Dynamics Seminar

Monday, May 1st, 2006, 11:30 AM
Cullimore Lecture Hall, Room 611
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Electrohydrodynamic Instabilities in Microchannels

Ozgur Ozen

Department of Mathematical Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Abstract

The stability of two-fluid flow in a channel is of importance in the design of microfluidic systems. Due to the low Reynolds numbers, it is relatively difficult to attain mixing in microchannels. Recent studies using miscible fluids have shown that applying electric fields enhances mixing over a short distance in short times. However, in a large class of applications, the fluids in contact are not miscible, and the interfacial tension stabilizes the interface, an effect absent in the physics of miscible fluids. I will talk about the physics of the mixing and the droplet formation phenomena, and present some experimental results along with the theoretical work we have been doing over the course of the last year.