Optimized Channel Geometry of a Flow-Focusing Droplet Generator for Parallelization

D. Conchouso[1], E. Al Rawashdeh[1], D. Castro[1], A. Arevalo[1], I.G. Foulds[1]
[1]King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Published in 2013

This document presents the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of a commonly used Microfluidic Droplet Generator (MFDG) using the Laminar Two-Phase Flow, Phase Field method in COMSOL Multiphysics®. The paper discusses the effect of the channel’s geometry in droplet size at different flow rate ratios and total flow rates. We then propose a guide to best select a cross-sectional area with low droplet size dynamic range that could be advantageous for massive parallelization of microfluidic droplet generators.