EPJ ST Special Issue: Multiphase microfluidics: Droplets, wetting dynamics and transport in complex media

Details

Published on 08 May 2024

Guest Editors: Tomislav Maric, Mathis Fricke, Mohammad R. Hashemi and Pavel Ryzhakov

Multiphase flow phenomena have become an attractive research topic in recent decades due to their complexity and significance for many natural and industrial processes. Microfluidic multiphase flows are crucial for many engineering systems, such as Lab-On-a-Chip, inkjet printers, fuel cells, microreactors, oil-gas/water transport, and CO2 sequestration in porous media. In most cases, the liquid-gas system forms a contact line with solid surfaces. Tending towards its equilibrium configuration, the three-phase system displays dynamic behavior largely determined by its physicochemical properties. The multiphase flow, in particular, contact line dynamics in many of these microfluidic systems, still needs to be fully understood. New numerical and experimental methods that can accurately handle contact line dynamics in complex geometries are under active development.

Theoretical models fall into three main categories: those that focus on the microscopic scale, particularly molecular dynamics, those that are dedicated to mesoscopic descriptions like phase field models, and those that are developed at the continuum level. Combining the outcomes of these three categories can fundamentally enhance the modeling technique and improve physical understanding of the involved phenomena. Recently, microscopic (molecular dynamic) simulations have provided a practical way to deepen our understanding of fundamental physics. On the other hand, a strong effort has been put into adapting continuum-level modeling high-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics methods to various applications at hand. Some recent works enrich the existing modeling approaches with the use of data-driven methods. Development of the Machine Learning approaches has opened new research avenues for tackling challenges such as curvature approximation, and optimization of complex microfluidic systems. Data-driven methods can also be a means for improving the efficiency of the numerical modeling of multiscale phenomena. We will discuss the latest research on how data-driven methodologies can improve both microfluidic system designs and the understanding of complex multiphase flow dynamics.

We invite researchers and experts in the field to contribute their original and innovative research papers, reviews, and perspectives on:

• mathematical modeling,
• experiments,
• numerical methods,
• data-driven approaches, and
• simulations

for multiphase microfluidics.

Articles should be submitted to the Editorial Office of EPJ ST via the submission system, and should be clearly identified as intended for the topical issue “Multiphase microfluidics”.

More detailed author information including paper types can be found in the Submission Guidelines. For the preparation of the manuscripts a special latex template (preferably single-column layout) is available here.

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