Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - 9:30 AM
182f

Shear-Induced Migration of Suspensions in 1D, 2D, and 3D Microchannel Flows

James F. Gilchrist and Changbao Gao. Lehigh University, Department of Chemical Engineering, Bethlehem, PA 18015

At relatively moderate to high volume fraction of solids, hydrodynamic interactions result in normal forces that induce migration of particles toward regions of low shear. This self-organization occurs despite dispersion via diffusion in simple shear flows. Alternatively, it is well known that mixing in many systems can be enhanced by inducing chaotic advection by breaking symmetries of the flow. Chaotic mixing has been demonstrated at various length scales, most recently in microchannels for lab-on-a-chip applications. What is unclear is how does shear migration interplay with chaotic advection. This interplay results in complicated concentration gradients that are dictated both by the underlying flow topology and the fluid rheology. Using high speed confocal laser scanning microscopy, particles are tracked in microfabricated channels having various flow topologies to determine their 3D positions and generate 2D concentration and velocity profiles, giving us details of the resulting particle migration.


Web Page: chaos.cc.lehigh.edu