Numerical Study of the Controlled Droplet Breakup by Electric Fields inside a Microfluidic Flow-focusing Device

Droplet-based microfluidics has received extensive research interests due to its superior control over the fluid flow. Conventional passive microfluidic flow-focusing devices confront difficulties in controlling droplet sizes in dripping regime especially when the dispersed phase has a large viscosity. External electric fields have been reported as an effective tool to manipulate droplet breakup. In present study, a computational fluidic dynamics based level-set method coupled with perfect dielectric model is used to investigate the formation of viscous silicone droplets inside water. The numerical simulations have shown that the breakup process exhibits different behaviors when electric fields of various strengths are applied due to the interaction of hydrodynamics and electrodynamics.