The variations of breakup and non-breakup regions for ferrofluid microdroplets in T-junctions with a proposed correlation

Aboutalebi, Mohammad; Adibi, Omid; Bijarchi, Mohamad Ali; Shafii, Mohammad Behshad; Kazemzadeh Hannani, Siamak

doi:10.24200/sci.2024.57207.5113

The variations of breakup and non-breakup regions for ferrofluid microdroplets in T-junctions with a proposed correlation

Articles in Press

Document Type : Article

Authors

¹ Center of Excellence in Energy Conversion (CEEC), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. P.O.B: 11155-9567

² Energy Management Group, Energy and Environment Research Center, Niroo Research Institute, Tehran, Iran. P.O.B: 1466-5517

10.24200/sci.2024.57207.5113

Abstract

Lots of attention has been paid to microfluidic and nanofluidic instruments in recent decades. One of the interesting instruments in this field that has attracted scientists is T-junctions. This paper reports an empirical study on the variation of breakup and non-breakup regions for ferrofluid microdroplets in symmetrical T-junctions under an asymmetrical magnetic field in the center of the junction. The asymmetrical magnetic field was generated using a permanent magnet on the right side of the T-junction. During the tests, ferrofluid microdroplets with different lengths and various velocities were entered into the T-junction and were influenced by an asymmetrical magnetic field. Results show that the increment in the magnetic flux density causes a higher possibility of non-breakup for ferrofluid microdroplets. Therefore, the breakup and non-breakup region in the diagram of non-dimensional length versus Ca number shifts upward. On the other hand, it was observed that the increment in Ca number is a key factor in breaking the microdroplets in the T-junction. Finally, a correlation was proposed to predict the breakup and non-breakup region due to different amounts of magnetic flux density and Ca number.

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