Numerical Study of Drop Formation in Microcahnnel under Uniform Magnetic Field

A hybrid lattice-Boltzmann with Shan-Chen model and finite-volume method is applied to simulate the effect of magnetic field on ferrofluid drop formation in the nonmagnetic viscous fluid in Co-flowing microchannels. The lattice Boltzmann method is used to track the moving interface between two immiscible phases and update the flow field by adding magnetic field force in lattice Boltzmann equations while the magnetic induction equation is solved using the finite volume method to calculate the magnetic field. The effects of the flow rate ratio, magnetic Bond number, and susceptibility on the length of drop, the distance between drops and frequency of drop generation in Co-flowing microchannels are investigated in detail. The results reveal that a magnetic field can be used to control drop size, distance between drops and drop formation frequency effectively. It also indicates that a hybrid lattice-Boltzmann with Shan-Chen model and finite-volume method is an effective way to simulate thegeneration of drops in microchannels under magnetic field.

Keywords:

Lattice Boltzmann method , Co-flowing Microchannels , Magnetic field