Swirl flow focusing: A novel procedure for the massive production of monodisperse microbubbles

Miguel A. Herrada, Alfonso M. Gañán-Calvo
2009 Physics of Fluids  
A volume-of-fluid numerical method is used to predict the dynamics of microbubble formation in an axisymmetric flow-focusing microfluidic device for a gas-liquid system. Numerical results show that, in all the cases analyzed, the introduction of swirl into the focusing liquid stabilizes the tapering gas-liquid meniscus from which a steady gas ligament issues. Consequently, a drastic reduction in the size of bubbles generated by the device is achieved under similar gas and liquid flow rates.
doi:10.1063/1.3123533 fatcat:bwhmrt44vvg75b6edem6h4i5ge